Lost and found
by DCIMorse
Summary: During the war Lady Une lost a part of her memories which are returning years after.Where this leads to? Read it then you know. Finished this storyfor now I think
1. Lost Love

Lost and found.

( I do not own any of the gundam characters nor any of the songs used in this story)

Lost Love

30 June 200 AC

Lady Une was sitting in her office trying to read the reports that were brought in that morning. It seemed like she could not concentrate on her work.

"I 've had it "she said"enough reports to look over,people to work with but not a moment of rest and peace for myself."

She heard a knock on her door on which she invited whoever was on the other end in.

"hello chief"a monotone voice said.

"Hello mr Yuy,what brings you here."

"I could not help to overhear your last comment just a moment ago."

"You know that eavesdropping is not gentlemanly."

"It was quite hard to ignore either since I could hear you in my office which is right across the hall and I did not need any hearing aids because you were close to screaming it."

Lady Une started to blush,she had said it out loud but that it was that loud she could not imagine.

"May I suggest something"Heero said"Why don't you take a little vacation and take Mariemaya with you since she starts her summer break as well. As far as I know you haven't taken a vacation since you started this job."

"I know but I just cannot pack and go. What..."

"I can handle it. You wouldn't have appointed me as second in command here if you didn't think I had the necessary skills to run this place without you."Heero interfered.

"Well the only skill you haven't fully mastered is diplomacy"Lady Une remarked.

"Actually living with Relena in the past two years have improved that skill quite well if I may say so."

Lady Une knew this was true since he escorted Relena on diplomatic missions from time to time as a bodyguard and on occasion he was also asked to address the senate when lady Une was ill. Most of the time he displayed his diplomatic skills as fully mastered on those occasions,so this was no excuse to stay in office.

"What if something comes up that you cannot handle yourself?'Lady Une asked.

"I have your cellphone number"

"So no reason for me to get out of it"

"No and I want you to take off all summer because you really need it."

"That's at least two months. I cannot take off for so long."

"Actually everyone here agrees you are a little overworked. It is about time you took a long vacation."

"You are not a doctor so you have no right to tell me if I should take a vacation or not."

"No but Sally is a trained Doc. She was the one who signalled me a few days ago that you need a break from work and as your first officer I have the right to tell you what to do in cases like this one."Heero said while he walked over to her desk,picked up all her files and tugged them under his arm."Now,it is 15:30 hours and I believe that Mariemaya's school finishes about this time so you go home,you pack some bags and go somewhere and relax. I don't want to see you here before September or until I need your help whatever comes first."

"I 'll see you in a few months but don't do anything stupid."Lady Une said.

"I won't,don't you do that either. Have a nice summer break and tell Mariemaya to keep an eye on you."

Lady Une arrived at Mariemaya's school where the girl looked surprised as her mother was there to pick her up after school. This was not really usual so something was up she knew her mother well enough by now.

"What's up mum"the young lady said.

"Oh my second in command kicked me out of the office for two months and ordered me to take you out on a vacation but I don't really need that."Lady Une sighed

"You do need a break mum and I would welcome this vacation as well. For the last four weeks you have been a pain in the proverbial ass and frankly I was fed up with it as much as our housekeeper/nanny was. A good thing that Heero noticed you needed a break-in the past four years you only took a break during the Christmas season while you kept working during the rest of the year unless you or me were ill. So need I say more or are you going to listen to doctor Yuy and do as he prescribed "Mariemaya replied with a serious tone in her voice.

"It seems like everyone wants me to take a break for a while and relax but it is not that easy for me since I haven't taken a vacation in years. Even back in the academy I refused to go home for the duration of the summer or any other season or reason to go home."lady Une said.

"Well now you will have to otherwise you might end up in a mental hospital and I can imagine that you really don't want to end up there. Raising me and working 10 hours a day is a lot of work you know and I haven't figured out why you haven't gone nuts yet."the girl said.

"Because I am somewhat of a nut case"lady Une whispered

"What did you say "Mariemaya asked.

"Erg I said let's pack our suitcases and go nuts somewhere else but here."lady Une answered.

Mariemaya looked up at her disbelievingly but decided to leave it with that since her mother never talked much about certain things although she sometimes wished she would confide in her. Even though Mariemaya was only ten years old she was as smart as an average fifteen year old girl and behaved even like a teen but she could possibly understand her mother and what has been eating her for so long.

"Mum you never tell much about your childhood or even your teenage years why is that?"

"Because there isn't much to tell actually"

"Did you have a nice mother?"Mariemaya tried to open her up again as she had the chance.

Lady Une looked at her and smiled. Her daughter started being her shrink again and she knew that she would not stop until she had some answers .

"My mother was the best mother a girl could wish for but she died when I was nine. My sister and I were then taken care off by a nanny but she could not replace our mother. I really loved mum. I remember the times that mum comforted me when I was crying and helped when I had some problems to take care of. Actually my mother was a saint."

"You have a sister?"

"Had a sister she ..."lady Une swallowed hard and continued"she committed suicide when I was sixteen."

A tear rolled over lady Une's cheek and at that point Mariemaya put her arms around her mother and kept silent.

"If I had known what was happening back home I would have helped her but she never wrote or said anything about it until it was too late. I kept blaming myself for that for years. Your father helped me to live with my sister's dead without blaming myself."

"Do you know what happened back then?"

Lady Une nodded but left it with that.

"Where will we be going on vacation" Une asked to change the conversation.

"I have always wanted to go to the Mosel to take a look over the vineyards,visit castles and ruins,eating local specialities maybe have a sip of wine and spend some time at a swimming pool."Mariemaya said.

"I have to think about that sip of wine but I want to go there as well so let's pack and take off tomorrow."

In the meanwhile Heero was about to start on looking through the last file he had grabbed from lady Une's desk when Relena walked in his office with a big smile. Their relationship had become more intimate over the years and the both of them finally became a couple. For a long time Duo had been betting with everyone who knew them how long it would take before Heero would admit his feelings for Relena. Duo lost a lot of money to lady Une since she was the only one who made the right guess. While most of them betted it would take about four to five years she gave it only two years. This was now about two years ago.

"What brings you here,honey" he asked.

"Well a very cute man and we have something to celebrate,lover boy"

"What are we going to celebrate"

"We finally got the law for protecting the soldiers who fought during the war. They now don't need to fear prosecution as long as they can prove they were not involved in atrocities during the war."

"That means that your brother still isn't off the hook" Heero burst her bubble

"Well but you are"

"Not completely,I have done some things myself that weren't exactly according to rules of engagement."

"You were a conditioned teenager who was told to fight the earth on behalf of the colonies."

"Still that doesn't make me less guilty as Milliardo but he had chosen to fight everyone who destroyed the Sanc kingdom even though there were other ways to end this circle of violence. I guess he didn't understand that at the time but now he is making up for it. Sadly enough he can't come home because the moment he sets foot on earth or any of the colonies I have to order his arrest. I don't want to do that and neither does anyone else here. He was actually one of the first to go up against Dekim and his gang of warhorses to secure the peace again."Heero reminded Relena. They both looked at each other and started smiling. Then Heero leaned in for a kiss but she held up the file he was supposed to look at.

"You haven't finished yet!"Relena teased.

"Oh right, lets have a look at that one." he said while he opened the file. The moment he looked at the pictures and reports in the file he turned pale. Relena looked at him wondering what made him scare like that. Heero,anticipating her curiosity,tossed her a picture and when she looked at the picture she turned pale as well.

"How did she get a hold of this picture?" Relena asked while Heero pulled a file out of his desk. He opened the file and pulled out a picture that was exactly the same as the picture he pulled out of the file that he had from lady Une.

"They are identical but I think that this one is the original one" he concluded after looking very carefully at the pictures.

"You mean that Doctor J gave you a copy." Relena wondered.

"Yes and no,I think he was trying to help me with my search for my family by giving me this picture of the person who he claimed was my mother. The moment I was given this picture I knew exactly where I had to look for my family but proving that I am family was another problem so I started to looking for other ways to obtain evidence that proves I am a member of the family. Now I have some proof of that and maybe more than I expected," Heero cheered while stood up and started to walk out of his office.

"Heero where are you going?"

"Evidence room for cold cases!" he shouted back as he reached the elevator.

The next day the ladies arrived in a little town called Bernkastel where they had booked a room in a local hotel. Lady Une was unpacking their belongings while Mariemaya was checking out the view over the river valley. She noticed there were remains of an old keep and felt like she had to see it up close one of these days.

"Mother,what are we going to do for the remainder of the day"the young girl asked.

"Well I don't know yet but I wanted to have a swim first,how about that?"lady Une said.

"Sounds great,what next?"Mariemaya responded.

"A meal and then relax here in the room with a book and some music."

"You have a strange idea of having fun. You sound like some thirty year old woman with at least two children and a lousy husband. You are in your early twenties and should go out at least once a week."

"And I think you spend way to much time with Lucrezia and Relena. They have been saying this for months as well so starting next school year you are no longer allowed to go to either of them until the three of you stop conspiring against me."lady Une growled

"Actually I got this from Heero Yuy and he also said to keep an eye on you while we are out here. Now how about this,after dinner we go around the town having a girls night out."Mariemaya suggested.

"As long as you get to bed in time I am going along with this for tonight OK." the young woman gave in.

"Great mum,so lets get those swimsuits and go to the pool."the little devil said.

Lady Une started to feel as if she was set up by everyone in her surroundings to take this vacation for some reason she could not figure out but while she was here together with her daughter she would make the best of it. She could use the rest and Mariemaya could unwind here as much as she needed to as well. There was only one thing she didn't like at the moment and that was the fact that her little angel was turning into her shrink. Why was Mariemaya so interested in her past all of a sudden and what could she tell her. There is even a hole in her memory since she woke up after being in a coma for weeks. There was even a memory of a song that has been haunting her for the past four years and she cannot remember where or when she heard it but it always made her feel warm and loved inside even though she can't remember why. She knew that Treize would never listen to a song like this or even bother to even consider listening to it. No,it had to do something with what happened in space during the war but what did happen there is what she has forgotten. The more she started to think about it the more she felt like she was wasting her time for now. She looked over to Mariemaya and saw she was ready for a swim so they left their room and went out swimming. As they were getting ready to dive in to the pool suddenly Une heard a familiar song.

_Lady, are you crying, do the tears belong to me? Did you think our time together was all gone?  
Lady, you've been dreaming. I'm as close as I can be.  
And I swear to you our time has just begun.  
Close your eyes and rest your weary mind. I promise I will stay right here beside you.  
Today our lives were joined, became entwined.  
I wish that you could know how much I love you._

Lady Une looked around to find out who was playing this song,the song that had been haunting her for years and she wanted to know what it had to do with her

_Lady, are you happy, do you feel the way I do?  
Are there meanings that you've never seen before?  
Lady, my sweet lady, I just can't believe it's true. And it's like I've never ever loved before.  
Close your eyes and rest your weary mind. I promise I will stay right here beside you.  
Today our lives were joined, became entwined.  
I wish that you could know how much I love you.  
Lady, are you crying, do the tears belong to me? Did you think our time together was all gone?  
Lady, you've been dreaming. I'm as close as I can be.  
And I swear to you our time has just begun._

.She saw a man with a portable media player and asked him if he had played the song.

"Yes,did you like it?"the man asked.

"Yes,but do you know who wrote and sung it"lady Une asked.

"Actually this is an old song written before the colonial period. It was somewhere in the twentieth century AD that a country/folk singer John Denver wrote this song and it became a hit as well. Nowadays only hopeless romantics like me listen to songs like these,what about you?"the man said.

"I have heard this song only once in my life but I fell in love with it although I can't remember why exactly."she said while she turned around an walked back to her place at the pool. Once she got back to her seat she started to cry even though she didn't know why she was crying. Mariemaya came up to her and saw the tears in her mother's eyes.

"Why are you crying?"the little girl asked

"I just don't know there is a reason but I just can't remember it. That song triggered a sadness in me and happiness at the same time and I can't remember why. And despite all I try to do to remember I just can't."lady Une sobbed.

'What song?"Mariemaya wondered.

"A song called 'my sweet lady' which originates from the twentieth century AD.I heard it once being sung by someone but I can't remember who,where and not exactly when. Since the end of the war I have a hole in my memory and I wish I could remember what I have forgotten. This vacation more then ever makes me want to find out what happened during the period that I arrived in space and the moment I got shot. The only things I know about are the reports that survived fortress Barge in which I only found combat and field data so I need to find another way to find out what happened. If my personal logs had survived I would have found out already what happened."

"Why don't you ask Heero to help you"Mariemaya suggested.

"Why him?He was a gundam pilot not an OZ soldier."Une wondered.

"He got himself imprisoned by you remember."

Lady Une remembered there was a report on the arrest of Heero,Duo and Wufei but what could they know about that but maybe Heero was a good place to start. She vaguely remembered that he was one of her gundam pilots during the war. She had to entrust him with her loss of memories. She knew she could trust Heero with this but she had doubts about what she might find out or what he might tell her. She decided that if she wanted to know what happened during that period she had to ask Heero.

"I am going to call him right now."Une said

She picked up her cellphone and dialled Heero's number.

"Hello chief,can't miss the office I notice "Heero answered his phone.

"Actually I need your help on something Heero."

She told him her story and Heero was a bit surprised but on the other hand it could be possible that she lost some of her memories.

"The only things I know about you is what I heard from Trowa after the war. He had lost his memory too after our battle with Quattre but Trowa was the one who was closest to you in the end. The few things he told me are the things you know as well,your split personality,your admiration for Treize Kushrenada..."

"Excuse me but how could Trowa be close to me. As far as I can remember we first met each other after the final battle."

"You really lost your memory. He had infiltrated in your ranks as an OZ cadet. You turned him into your right hand together with me."Heero said"So if you really want to know what happened in that period you should talk to him"

Heero gave her a few phone numbers on which Lady Une could possibly reach Trowa since he was travelling with a circus. Lady Une thought it would be better to put of her quest for one day and spend an evening out in town with her daughter in order to clear her mind. She was looking forward to finally having answers to the questions she had about that particular period in her life.

"Mister Winner there is someone here to see you without an appointment but she insists on meeting you."the voice through intercom told Quattre

"Who is it ?" He asked

"A certain Ms Catalonia. Shall I send her through?"

Quattre started to remember the day Dorothy ran her sword through him. Every now and then when it was mentioned he started to feel the pain again like he felt it now. Now she was here to see him for the first time since that day. Maybe she came to apologise although it was not necessary. He forgave her a long time ago but she didn't know. He wanted to meet her again for so long but every time he thought to have a chance to meet her again she didn't show up. Now she was finally here he didn't know what to do or what to say and he also had a meeting with a very important client in a few minutes.

"Mr Winner are you there?"

"Yes I was just checking my diary to see if there was enough time to see her but I have an important meeting in five minutes so would you please tell her that I will meet her,"checking his diary Quattre felt guilty to send her away now but he couldn't reschedule that meeting so he would make sure he could meet Dorothy at least over diner at his favourite restaurant that evening"at eight o'clock this evening in the 'Comme chez soi'."

After that he turned off the intercom and looked at the door hoping that Dorothy wouldn't be insulted because he turned her down right now.

Outside his office his secretary was looking at Dorothy thinking about how she was going to tell her that her boss couldn't meet her right now.

"Ms Catalonia I'm terribly sorry but Mr Winner can't meet you right now but he wants to meet you tonight over dinner at a restaurant called 'Comme chez soi' at eight o'clock and I would suggest that you take the offer since you are the first person outside his family who is offered the opportunity to dine with him there."

"I will take the offer and in case Mr Winner needs to reschedule here is my number. I understand he is busy right now and I really did not expect to get in his office without an appointment."

"I think he has to explain his sisters tonight why he is going out without telling them sooner."

"Why should he?"

"They like to chaperone"

"I see but I think he is old and wise enough to take care of himself don't you think."

"He certainly is Ms Catalonia."

Dorothy left the building and thought about how she could fill the rest of the day until she was supposed to meet Quattre. In the meanwhile Quattre's secretary tried to find out a few things about Dorothy and came across some file in which everything about their previous meetings were recorded. She could not believe that he was going to dinner with the very same woman that tried to kill him almost five years ago. She wondered how his sisters would react if he told them what he was up to tonight.

"Elise,where are the copies of the file I asked you for ten minutes ago."

"I bring them in right away Mr Winner" She said picking up the files he requested

"Elise,I would also appreciate it if you weren't looking through my personal files." Quattre reprimanded her the moment she walked into his office "What happened between Ms Catalonia and me is between the two of us and not between the company and her,is that understood."

"Yes Mr Winner,I was just curious and a bit concerned."

"If I need a bodyguard I will ask lady Une for one OK,"Quattre told her knowing that she might someday be going through his files again just to get his attention. He regretted hiring her but she was the best of the lot at the time so he tolerated her for as long as necessary.

"Mr Winner I hope you will make sure that she won't compromise your safety," she started but got interrupted.

"Elise, I can take care of myself and if you want to be concerned about someone's safety start to think about Ms Catalonia's safety since she is in more danger here than I am. Now get to work again and I don't want another word about this again. Capiche"

His secretary turned around and walked out of the office.

"You are going out with Dorothy Catalonia,the woman that wanted to kill you during the war?" Irea screamed disbelieving what her little brother just said."Don't come to me when you need patching up again. I don't know what you try to prove by going out with her but I would have liked it when you told us sooner so one of us could come with you."

"I understand but she surprised me as well by showing up at the office today and I couldn't just send her away without making some kind of an arrangement so she could see me after all. I am sure that she is not here to finish the job she started almost five years ago. I have the feeling she is here for another reason than that. Why can't anyone give her the benefit of the doubt? Am I one of the few who would actually give her a chance to prove that she also has other qualities besides being an intriguer and a good fighter. There is more to her than meets the eye,my dear sister but one must be willing to see."

"I think you are not thinking with your head right know."Irea sighed"If I wouldn't know any better I would say you are in love with her."

"What if I were" Quattre asked her.

"Well if that would be the case it certainly would explain your excessive use of aftershave and the fact that you haven't decided yet what to wear to dinner." Irea laughed looking at Quattre in his boxers.

"Alright,I admit somehow I love her but I never had a chance to tell her how I feel about her even though she ran a sword through me. Don't ask me why I love her but that is just how it is. You think this suit would be right for a first date?" he said showing a white suit and grey shirt.

"I think she likes to see you wear a suit. It really shows how well build you have become in the past few years she hasn't seen you. You think she will recognise you."

"I hope so since I don't know if I will recognise her. She may have changed over the years."

"Do you really love her or is it just pity you are feeling."

"I don't feel sorry for her nor do I pity her,I just happened to love her since the first day I set my eyes on her but at the time we were enemies so a relationship was out of the question at the time. I have been bottling up these feelings since then and now I can finally let them out although she may not love me."

"Well in that case I have to say good luck brother dear but don't be to disappointed if she doesn't feel the same way about you."

"I won't be because I am not going out with her to see if she has any kind of feelings towards me. All I want to know now is why she wanted to see me and how she is doing now."

Quattre looked once more in the mirror and decided this would have to do. He picked up his car keys and walked out of his room leaving his worrying sister behind.

Half an hour later as he entered the restaurant he saw a beautiful blond in front of him who walked to the manager.

"I came here to dine with Mr Winner"the woman said to the man.

"I am afraid Mr Winner has forgotten to make a reservation Miss," the manager said.

"I don't think Mr Winner has forgotten to make a reservation Robert,"Quattre joined the conversation"I think his secretary has. Could you please check if there is a table for two available."

"I will see what I can do if you don't mind waiting at the bar" the manager said

"That will be nice,thank you"

Then Quattre walked over to the bar while he pulled out his cellphone and started dialling.

"Elise,you can clean out your desk tomorrow and go back to your position at the reception. You forgot to make dinner reservations for the last time. This was the sixth time this month and the month is only halfway."he said and then ended the conversation.

"My my ,this is a side of you I have never seen before,"Dorothy began"but then again I never took the time to really know you. I was to busy hiding from you so I didn't have to face you again."

Quattre looked at her and saw that she had her eyebrows styled differently than he remembered. The fork shape was gone what made her more beautiful than he remembered. She seemed to be smaller than he remembered but he forgot that he had gotten taller himself while she had not grown much since the last time he saw her. She looked at him and started to think about how tall he had gotten and that he no longer was the boy she had known five years ago. She remembered him as a boy who rather sacrificed himself for her than to save himself. He had always this kind nature but what she just saw was a different Quattre than she remembered.

"Sorry about that but this was the last time she made a fool out of me. The last time she forgot to make dinner reservations I walked in here with all my sisters and you could imagine my surprise when I heard that there were no reservations made for me and my family so we had to order in and stay home. I think I better hire someone else tomorrow. Now how have you been al these years?"

"I have been fine and I am glad that you invited me for dinner. I really wanted to see you again but instead of actually doing it in the past four years I kept running."

"Were you afraid of what I might say or do to you?"

"Honestly I thought you would not want to see me at all since I ran you through and never formally apologised for it."

"First of all you never had to apologise for that and second I would have welcomed you with open arms. Unfortunately your timing today was lousy,that is why I wanted to meet you here."

"I already understood that you had other business to attend to and you wanted to take as much time for me as possible. I am great full that you want to do that for me although I don't really deserve it"

"Nonsense,I would take all the time I need for the people who mean something for me. You are one of the few friends I have in this corner of the galaxy."Quattre said with a big smile.

Suddenly the restaurant manager gestured Quattre to come over so the both of them walked up to him. He had a cancellation and that table was now available for the two of them. After they were seated Quattre took a good look at her and had the impression she didn't look to good.

"Well how are you doing lately" Quattre started fishing for answers.

"I am doing fine,thank you."

"I see, and what are you doing for a living?"

"I try to get a teaching position as a philosophy teacher but most of the time the better candidate gets picked for the job so I get by by doing some jobs for the preventers. Lady Une has somewhat of a soft spot for me. What about you?"

"Well as heir of the Winner corporation I first had to get worked in but now I am running the business successfully and we are making more profit than ever."

"Good to hear you are doing well."

"But are you doing well?"

"Yes,why do you ask?"

"Well maybe it is just my imagination but you seem to have lost a little weight since the last time I saw you and despite the happy face you put on your feelings betray you."

"You always had a sixth sense,"Dorothy started "but whatever troubles me right now is none of your concern"

"Maybe I can help" Quattre offered but Dorothy didn't reply to that. Instead she turned her attention to the menu and asked what he would suggest them to eat. Quattre knew that at this point she would never come back on the issue so he gave up and tried to make the best of the evening.

When Dorothy and Quattre had finished dinner Quattre offered her to take her elsewhere but she refused.

"Do you have to be somewhere tomorrow" he asked.

"Actually yes,I am going home tomorrow so I have to pack tonight. It was a lovely evening but all good things come to an end. I am glad I have seen you again and I hope to see you again someday."

"At least let me drop you off at your hotel"

"That would be nice of you."

"Are you staying at the Ritz"

"What do you think?"

Then he drove her to the hotel, wished her goodnight and left her at the entrance. He left her behind but parked his car in the next street. A few moments later he saw her walking away from the Ritz into another direction. He decided to follow her on foot. After walking a few blocks he saw her enter a small dilapidated hotel and started to wonder why a rich girl like her would spend the night there. He waited to enter until she was out of sight but once inside he asked the desk clerk if they had a guest with the name Dorothy Catalonia or Duchess Dermail present. The clerk confirmed, after Quattre bribed him,she was a guest at the hotel. After he was given her room number Quattre went up to surprise her.

He knocked on her door and anticipating that she would ask who was there he told her that he was sent by the hotel manager because there was something wrong with her credit. He heard her swear and then she smacked open the door to see Quattre standing in front of her. Her face went pale as soon as she saw him.

"Quattre,..."she gasped

"I wonder why a rich woman like you would stay in a hotel like this. Why a woman like you would lie to me about how well her life is going when actually her feelings tell me otherwise. What is going on Dorothy? Why do you refuse my help?Why do you try to hide yourself from me?"he wondered

Dorothy started to cry as soon as Quattre finished talking and backed into the room where she stumbled over a bottle and ended up falling on to her bed. Quattre followed her in,closed the door and looked around and saw a number of empty liqueur bottles lying around her room. He figured she had drank them all but now he had to do something about it. He looked at her lying on the bed in tears ,walked up to her and put his arms around her to comfort her. She looked into his eyes and found the kindness that he used to show to everyone in the past but maybe he was more careful these days in showing this part of his character.

"I ,..."she sniffed"could not face you as the screw up I am now. I feel ashamed of what I 've become after the war and the Barton revolt..."Then she started crying again in his arms and Quattre kept drying her tears. He started to wonder what had happened in the past four years and by the way she held on to him he thought she must have been alone in handling her problems.

"Tell me what happened,Dorothy"

"Well after the war I was approached by a man who told me that he was a financial adviser. He would help me in how to handle my finances and make sure that I would have enough money to keep up the lifestyle I was used to. I believed him and let him handle my finances together with my bookkeeper. Right after the Barton revolt my bookkeeper came to tell me that the entire family fortune was gone and he didn't know what our financial adviser had done with the money. I knew immediately that we had been had by this guy and I was left no choice then to sell most of the properties I had in order to get some money to make sure I could afford the upkeep of my home but now I have to sell that as well. Once I was a spoiled brat and now I am standing on the edge of poverty. Every time I apply for a job as a teacher I get turned down and the few jobs I got were just temporary. I have been a waitress,a pizza deliverer,a secretary,a maid and the list goes on and on but I was never good enough in those jobs so I got fired most of the time. The only jobs I could finish were the freelance jobs lady Une handed me from time to time to help her out. I once asked her if she could use me on a permanent bases but she refused because she rather sees me teaching the next generation about the philosophy behind the way we live today. If I can get my hands on that conman I will kill him."

"How did he call himself?"

"He called himself Stryker...James Stryker, after my bookkeeper checked him out we gave him the job."

"I know the name,two years ago he approached me to discuss a deal. He wanted to buy half the Winner company for the nice sum of 600.000.000 credits but I smelled a rat and refused his proposal. Besides the company was worth five times as much as he offered. Six weeks later he bought all the remaining assets of the Barton foundation. One year later he sold everything for one billion credits. Then he started to buy Winner shares in order to get in the company that way but I made sure that I was able to buy every share I could get my hands on to make sure he would not get into the board of investors. Now I am holding about 75 of the shares available and he only has 1.I bet he financed everything he did in the past two years with your money. I will look into that if you don't mind letting me help you."

"I already told the preventers but they couldn't even get him since he claimed to have made his fortune all by himself and he could prove it as well. No Quattre even you can't beat him."

"Not by myself but I know just the guy to help me to con this guy."

"You know a conman"

"I prefer to call him a con artist. He has run a lot of scams in the past in order to trap a con. You know him to, remember Duo. He is still the con master in the Earth sphere and we will get him. You will have to be patient but in time we will get him. As for now I want to lend you a sum of money so you can hold on to the Catalonia estate. As soon as we get the guy you can pay me back. You can bring in the bills at the bank on earth and my people will take care of them,is that a deal?"

"Quattre you are to kind for me but I just can't take your offer. It is my problem not yours although I can use the money I just can't take it."

"You will and as soon as you get your money back I will come around asking to pay back what you owe me."he persisted and took out his chequebook.

"Quattre,no,I..."

"Will one million do to cover the expenses for one year."

"Half of it is already enough but..."

"Well then you can spend the rest of the money on whatever you like just as long as you don't run out of it within the year."

Knowing that Quattre would never give up she accepted the check and put it in her purse. After that she looked at him,thanked him and started to clean up the bottles lying around the room. Quattre helped her out and after a while they were sitting next to each other looking at the door.

"You seem to have developed a taste for alcohol,"Quattre started up the conversation.

"Only in the last week,I didn't know any more what to do or where to go so I crawled in the bottle. I am not proud of the way I handled myself lately but I can't change things."

"Then take a fresh start today,I will help you find a job and I would like you to stay at my place for as long as you will stay here."

"I told you I will be leaving tomorrow,so your offer doesn't really matter right now."

"You go home to what?A job interview?A lover?No another day of looking out the window thinking of what might have been."

"No I have other business to attend to,to tell my household that they don't need to worry for their jobs any more since you were so kind to save their job" she said pointing at her purse. Quattre smiled and put his arms around her.

"Dorothy,have I ever told you how much I like you."

"I have the feeling you like me more than you are willing to admit right now."

"What..."

"I can see right through you Mr Winner and you know I had not seen it if you had not come here. You know what the funny thing is... I love you to Quattre and that was the only reason I wanted to see you today since I thought I would never have the chance to see you again."

She put her arms around Quattre and she started kissing him.

Mariemaya and lady Une had a fun night out in the town and went to bed late. When lady Une fell asleep she heard that song again in her mind. This time she even heard a voice,which sounded very familiar, telling her that he promised her to be there for her whenever she needed him. She knew that voice but whose voice was that. She saw herself in the mirror wearing her OZ uniform while there was someone in the background watching her. Who was that guy?Next thing she saw were green eyes looking deep into her eyes. She felt her lips touching someone else's lips, a lust growing in a way she never experienced before. She felt hands stroking her all over her sweaty body,lips sucking her nipples and a tongue licking her most intimate place and next she heard herself say to whoever was doing this to her that she loved him. He responded with the words "I love you too"and then she felt something penetrating her body. She started to breath heavily and slowly but surely a very pleasant and satisfying feeling took over her senses. In the end she held on to someone and for the first time in her life she had an orgasm. With a scream lady Une woke up.

"Mother are you all right?"Mariemaya asked after being so rudely woken up.

"It was just a nightmare May, go back to sleep"Une whispered to the shocked girl. The girl went back to sleep and lady Une started to think about her dream while she walked over to her closet and pulled out a fresh nightgown. She went into the bathroom to wash up and change clothes discovering she actually had a wet dream which seemed so real but she could not remember that she ever shared her bed with anyone not even with Treize. She was one of those women who still believed in staying a virgin until her wedding night so this had to be nothing more than a bad dream although it felt quite real. Was she still a virgin she started to wonder or had she married Treize during the war or did something else happen?She had to know what happened during the war. She really wanted get her memory back and sooner rather than later. She was going to call Trowa in the morning since he was supposed to know more about what she had been doing during the war in space. She couldn't believe that he had infiltrated her unit without raising suspicions or even betray himself. He must have been an expert in this on the other hand she should know since he was also able to infiltrate in Dekim Barton's Army. The rest of the night she spend reading a book since she was disturbed by her nightmare. When Mariemaya woke up she looked up and wished her a good morning. The ten year old looked at her with a malicious smile and said"Have you been up since you woke up from that nightmare or is it just my imagination that you look like hell. Whatever you dreamed it must have been quite horrible."

"It was not that horrible only disturbing. I have never had dreams like that before but on the other hand I am not really convinced it was just a dream. Maybe it was a jumble of memories that start to surface but I can't quite put them together. I hope that Heero's suggestion turns up something otherwise I may be looking for answers for the rest of my life."lady Une explained.

"What keeps you from calling Trowa."the young lady asked.

She knew that the man who called himself Trowa Barton was not a relative of hers but at she saw him as the uncle she once had. Besides the memories she had of her uncle were few and not as pleasant as the ones she had from the former gundam pilot. Whenever he was in the neighbourhood he visited her. Most of the time her mother was not around when he came to visit. She regretted that from time to time since he seemed to be interested in her mother and mother never noticed. Was she still caught up in her memories of her father?Or didn't she want to look at another man because she was afraid to get hurt again._"Oh mum,why don't you stop doing this to yourself and move on. Dad is dead and nothing can change that."_Mariemaya thought to herself.

Lady Une looked at her worried face and did some thinking of her own. She couldn't keep up the life she had been living until now so she had to change a few things in her life. First of all she needed to break free from all the memories regarding Treize and then maybe she might try to start a new relationship with someone else. Whoever that might be. She started to entertain the idea of falling in love with the mysterious guy in her dream with the green eyes. She picked up her cellphone and started dialling the numbers Heero provided her. At most of the numbers the people at the other end wondered why she called for him since he was not around for at least a few months. One time she was talking to Trowa's answering machine but with the last number she finally got in touch with someone who could give her some clue about Trowa's whereabouts.

"Catherine Bloom "Lady Une heard at the other end of the connection.

"Good morning This is lady Une .I was wondering if you could help me to find Trowa Barton. I need to speak with him about something."

"You aren't the only one who wants to know where he is right now. I don't know either but it 's the same time every year for the last three years now he just takes off and doesn't show his face around here for at least two months. The only thing I can connect this with is the fact that he nearly lost his life around this time of the year five years ago."

"I almost lost my life as well around that same time but that is at least two months from now. We almost bought it at exactly the same day"lady Une remembered the day that she got shot by some pigheaded engineer.

"Are you trying to tell me that he could have another reason why he does this every year because frankly I want to know his big secret. Ever since he came back from the war he had changed,a lot actually,as if that one trip with the Wing Zero had showed him something. Well maybe I am just seeing things,am I making sense to you."Catherine asked

"I have heard about the Zero system and it's special functions and side effects but honestly I have not experienced any of it myself. Everyone who had the opportunity to use it said that they caught a glimpse of their future. Heero once told me that my future was never meant to be with Treize even if he had survived the war although I found that hard to believe. He even said there was someone else meant for me but that I had to find that out myself. I still can't figure out what he meant by that."Lady Une reassured Catherine"If you think you are not making sense well than must Heero make no sense at all."

"Trowa once made a remark like that as well. He said that we were closer related then we thought at first. I once had a younger brother,Triton but he went missing at a very young age and when Trowa came into my life I treated him like a brother instead as a colleague. He reminded me of Triton but he couldn't be him. I never wanted to believe him when he said it I even refused a DNA-test to prove him wrong."

"It seems to me that you have fallen in love with him and that you are afraid of the truth. What if he really is your little brother is that so bad?"

"One night, during the war I seduced him and I got him to go to bed with me. I was turned on by him. I have never felt like that before. He had this exciting aura that made me loose my head but I regretted it the next day since he didn't love me in a romantic way. Maybe he didn't want to get into a relationship back then because he was in the middle of fighting of Oz.When he mentioned later on that we were possibly brother and sister for real I suddenly started to feel numb and ashamed as well. The one night we had suddenly didn't feel as good as it felt then. My stomach was turning and before Trowa realised what was happening he got my lunch all over him."

"Oh gross,it was not as if you knew you were sleeping with your own brother at the time. Would you have done it if you knew he was your brother."

"Yuk,no way,I am not interested in that kind of nonsense."Catherine responded violently.

"Ok,now you really have no clue where he might be."Une asked Catherine.

"Well maybe I know something,he is rather fond of Country and Folk music and there happens to be a big concert somewhere in Germany so maybe he went over there. I believe this concert takes place in a city called Trier. If you really want to find him that is one of the possible places he might be."

"Thank you for the tip,I will at least take a look over there. Catherine if there is something I can do for you sometime,call me."

"Tell Trowa to share his secret with me because I don't want to explain his absence next year he takes off with 'I don't know where he is but I think he will be back as usual when he is out of money.'I hate that because he never comes back broke but loaded with cash which he always donates to charity."

Quattre woke up looking around for a little while so his brain started to get working again. He felt Dorothy's arm around his chest and her head lying against his shoulder. He took a look at his watch and got surprised.

"_Ten o'clock already I'm late for work."_ he thought taking out his cellphone to check if there were any messages. Since there were no messages he decided to call the office.

"Winner Corporation how can I help?"he heard at the other end of the line.

"It is Mr Winner here,can you put me through with Mr Williams please."

"Off course"

After a few seconds he heard Williams pick up the phone.

"Mr Winner how can I help you,when I heard this morning you were ill we postponed the meeting we had at nine till tomorrow and don't worry we can run this place without you present all the time. So get well and we 'll see each other tomorrow."

"Well I wanted to tell you that I sent Elise back to her place at the reception and that we have to find someone new to fill her place."

"We 'll do our best but don't get your hopes up to fast."

"See you tomorrow" Quattre said looking at the still sleeping Dorothy. He studied how her chest moved with every breath she took. Then he tried to move but by doing so he woke up Dorothy.

"Mmm,not now it is ...Quattre?" She said waking up realising that the two of them spent the night together in a small hotel as if they had a relationship no one was to know about. She started smiling at the idea of having an affair with him until she realised she was naked under the sheets.

"Quattre ,"her memory was getting back to her,"you were wonderful last night and I don't know what to say or do right now except to thank you for the nice evening."

"Well you can start by calling the desk why we weren't woken up at 6:00 as we asked for last night?"

"What do you mean Quattre,"

"It is 10:15 in the morning which means you have missed your flight to Earth and the next direct flight to Earth is in two days,while there is one flight tomorrow with a stopover at L2 for six hours."

Dorothy looked at Quattre and called the hotel manger for an explanation. He told them that she had called to cancel the wake up call at 4:00 am. When Dorothy put the phone down she wondered why she would do that and when she did it. She told Quattre who couldn't remember her awake to do so since he was awake around four to go to the bathroom. Then he checked his private cellphone and noticed there were three messages from Irea. He read them and started to realise what had happened.

"Dorothy, I think you didn't make that call. It was my nosy older sister Irea who made the call."

"Why on earth would she do that?"

"Because she loves her little brother to be happy. Well at least we can spend a little more time together since I don't have to go to work for a day and you are stuck here until at least tomorrow. So what do you want to do first."

"First I am going to call home and tell my staff the good news that their pay check is in the mail and they don't have to start looking for another job,unless they want to. I am not really an easy person to work for."

"And after that?"

"I will cash in your check and put it in my bank account so I can pay off my bills. Then I want to have a brunch with you and stuff myself as I haven't in a year." Dorothy laughed.

"Don't tell me that you have been starving yourself just to keep your home."

"No,I just didn't have enough money from time to time to buy some food so I lived on whatever was left at home. Now I don't have to for a while but I still need a job."

"Well I have checked all the vacancies in our corporation and I found a few jobs you might consider of taking."

"I 'll take a look at them as soon as I have eaten alright."

"Alright."

Back on Earth lady Une found out that the concert was not taking place for six weeks so she had more than enough time to visit the local tourist places with Mariemaya. They visited local castles and ruins,ate in various restaurants and visited a vineyard. At the vineyard Mariemaya tasted her first wine and liked the taste of it but she knew that her mother wouldn't approve her to drink more than what she had tasted that day. The owner of the vineyard offered them a deal on the wines they had tasted and lady Une bought two cases of them. They had a great time and forgot about their lives at home,at work or at school. One night they were sitting down in their hotel room looking at each other.

"Mother,why don't you talk much about your past?"Mariemaya asked in an attempt to get her to open up for once.

"Because most of my childhood memories are quite painful to talk about. I have already told you something I believe."

"Yes but if you tell half the story you have to tell the rest of it as well. For instance,why didn't you go home during the summer break while you were still at school?Why didn't you want to go home at all? What happened to your sister?Why did she commit suicide?And why don't you ever talk about the rest of your family?I have a cousin I can talk about. You never mention anyone."Mariemaya yelled at lady Une.

"You are right I never talk much about myself unless it involves your father and you know plenty about him and me than you know about me as a person. I think it would be a good thing to start with a little family history. I was born as the daughter of an aristocrat and inherited his title. My father was a Count by birth since he was a member of ancient nobility. So that would make me a countess but I refuse to use that title since that was the reason I had not much of a childhood. My mother married father because she loved him but my father married her for her money. He made it very clear to my mother that she had to bare only daughters so he could marry them of to children of people with power. He was a member of the Romefeller foundation in those days. He was very happy when I was born so he had an heir to his title and family fortune and he had the chance of strengthening his position within Romefeller. When Ariana was born he felt as if he could become the strongest member in the foundation. By the time I was three mother got pregnant again but after a while it became clear that she was having a boy and father wanted her to have an abortion. Mother refused and she was send away to a clinic for a long time. When she came back I was already four years old and she was nothing more than a shadow of the person she used to be. The only words that came out of her for the first two months were 'What did you do to me and my boy?' I didn't understand at the time what she was talking about and taking care of Ariana was becoming a full-time job for me. I was the one who took care for her as long as mother was not well. Luckily she snapped out of that and started to take care of us as any mother would. For four years we were a happy family again until she decided to look for her son Jonah which my father did not approve of but she didn't care. She hired a private investigator to find out everything about her son and what had happened to him. If she had known than where this search would lead her in the end she wouldn't have bothered but for a year she kept looking following leads and in the end she got shot in a dark alley somewhere in Berlin. My father called of the P.I. and the whole matter was dropped but my mother had already found out enough to leave behind for me and Ariana so we could look for him. The next five years I spend with my father were quite happy times. At my fourteenth birthday he took me to a ball where a lot of Romefeller members were present. I met Duke Dermail there for the first time together with his granddaughter Dorothy,your cousin. At the time I was not really used to that kind of people but I managed to behave ladylike. Everyone was quite impressed by my performance but little did they know that my father obliged us to use the proper etiquette at the right time,even at home we had to act formally. I came in contact with very nice boys there and my father kept introducing me to them as if I was already ready to marry any of them. When we came home that night I told him to stop getting me into a relationship with one of the people he wanted me to marry. I would choose my own husband but that was something he was not to happy with. He even mentioned Milliardo at one point as a goodhearted fool not worthy to marry one of his daughters. I think he had to rethink that five years later as Zechs Merquise was rocking the world. When he was off to bed I decided to run away. Six days later I applied at the academy and became a soldier. I wrote Ariana to do the same but she never did. Whenever I was home I wondered why she didn't want to go with me to the academy and stay with father to fulfil his dreams. I asked her once and all she said was that one traitor in the family was enough. That was what I was to them until I received a letter from Ariana telling me that she was going to kill herself because for the time I was at the academy he was abusing her as his slave. She killed herself the day I got the letter. I went to her funeral and left father with a warning,that one day his son and I would kill him. Since then I worked hard to become the woman I was during the war and at one point in the war my father died after he saw the images of Heero blowing up his gundam and himself. According to the people who were there at the time he cried out' He has come to kill me' and then he got a heart attack and died. I don't know what he meant with his final words but maybe he thought that Heero was Jonah."

"Is he?"a small voice asked.

"Honestly I don't know but it might since the baby was given a complete genetic makeover according to what mother had found out. I hope that I can find my brother while I am still alive because he is the only relative I have got left."Lady Une said thinking this would be a good place to start searching for her brother but that could wait a bit longer than the return of her memory. She started to look at the flyer she got a few hours before. It was announcing the annual country and western festival of Trier. On the list of performers she found Trowa's announced as the greatest star. She wondered why he was considered such a big star while she never heard one song from him on the radio. It seemed to her that he was hiding something but what was he hiding. She decided to see the people who were organising the event and try to get as much information as possible from them although that might be little to go on.

The next day she had an appointment with the organiser of the festival. She hoped that he at least could tell him what Trowa was like towards them because she knew him as a quiet person not a talker. When she entered the office of the man she was supposed to meet she saw a poster on the wall portraying Trowa in a Western outfit. She kept staring at the poster in disbelief,the clown she knew him to be was a singer as well.

"Quite impressive don't you think"the man behind the desk said.

"Well depends on how you look at it"lady Une replied.

"Trowa is one of the first stars we were able to book three years in a row. He is well known throughout the world,well at least to people who listen to country music. He recorded his first album this year and it was the best-selling album this year. He sold five million albums in one day. People were really waiting for this album to be recorded. Unfortunately he only tours two months a year so we have to be quick to book him. It seems as if for the rest of the year he is working somewhere else."

"Well Trowa works in a circus as an acrobat and a clown for the most of the year. I never realised that he was a singer the rest of the year. It seems like I don't know him that well as I thought."

"That makes two of us. I knew there was something about him. For months now I try to figure out why someone with his talent would not make more out his career than singing a few songs and send the money he makes in the process to the Peacecraft fund. I wouldn't if I was in his shoes but then again I am not him."

"Well that sounds just like him to me. He is very fond of all the projects that are founded to help war victims,war orphans and those who were fighting to achieve peace. I was one of those people who founded the Peacecraft fund. This is a fund for the rebuild of the places that have been destroyed by the military during the war."

"You seem to know a lot about that."

"I was part of that war and in a way I want to redeem myself for all the things I have done during the war. I was a horrible person then."

"Excuse me but who were you again I did not get your name."

"My name is Ann Une better known to the people as Lady Une."

"Colonel Une of OZ."

Une nodded,"I don't want to be called colonel any more but how do you know about me?"

"I was one of Kushrenada's aids during the war and he used your love for him to achieve his goals and you did everything he asked. I remember quite well that he told me that as long as you believed that he loved you too that he could make you do anything he wanted. Every time you weren't around he was flirting with other women,even slept with other women. And even though I never had the pleasure of meeting you I felt sorry for you. Finally I am given the chance to tell the truth about him to you."

"Are you sure of that?"

"I wouldn't dare to lie to you because if you would ever find out that I lied to you you would tear me to pieces."

"Hey, I would not. Not anymore that is because I am no longer the woman I was five years ago."Lady Une responded.

"I heard you softened up over the years but this soft,I can't believe it."the man said.

"That is what three and a half years of motherhood can do to a person."

"You have a child?"

"Actually I adopted Treize's daughter Mariemaya."

"Is she here too,"

Lady Une nodded.

"I want to meet her,can I?"

"As long as you don't mention her father's little adventures behind my back."

"Agreed"

Lady Une called in Mariemaya and introduced her to the man who was very happy to meet the little lady. He started to tell a few stories about her father and his views on the war. Treize definitely knew about Mariemaya. He even told her that she was the reason why Treize did what he did.

"Well lady Une since you came around to find out something about Trowa I can only help by giving you some VIP entrance cards which also allow you to come backstage and maybe you can talk with him then. How does that sound to you."

"Sounds great and maybe we will enjoy ourselves that day since this will be a completely new experience to both Mariemaya and me. I am looking forward to meet you again."

Then they left the office and went back to their hotel. On the way over there the man's stories kept running through her head. Had Treize only used her during the war to make sure his hands were clean?Didn't he love her at all?Was she really that foolish back then?Why didn't she find out at the time.

"_Oh I was to blind to see at the time. I was head over heels in love with him that I would believe everything he said. I would do anything for him as long as I could please him and get his attention but in the end he send me to outer space to get me out of his way so he could do what he liked."_Lady Une thought. Suddenly she remembered something from during the war. It was a conversation she had with someone. They were talking about her relationship with Mr Treize and how he had treated her up to that point. She had always been confident that as soon the war was over he would ask her to marry him but at this point she lost all faith after hearing that he was having an affair with someone else. Who was she talking to?She tried to visualise the place and the person she was talking to but the only thing she saw were green eyes staring into her eyes. Whose eyes are these?Who did she talk to back then?Where was this conversation taking place?

When they got back to their hotel room Mariemaya looked puzzled at lady Une.

"What is it Mariemaya? Is there something you want to talk about."Une asked

"Why were you so absent during our drive over here? Is there something wrong? Are you getting flashes from the past?" Mariemaya wondered trying to get the truth out of her mother. Une sighed and knew that she better confessed then to tell her some more lies.

"I had a flashback but I am not really sure if it was one. All I saw was me talking about your father to someone else and how he had treated me up to that point. I was honestly thinking of leaving him but I don't know why for sure. There was something about your father having an affair with another woman although that could be absurd. He loved me as much as I loved him and we were getting married after the war. He didn't survive the war and I didn't get married after all but there is one thing that was strange to me,I tried to see who I was talking to but the only thing I saw were green eyes looking into mine. Soft sparkles in his eyes and I felt as I was drowning in his eyes,helpless and feeling loved."

"Mum, do you think you were having an affair yourself during the war?"

"I think so otherwise I wouldn't have memories like that but on the other hand I don't have a clear picture of what was happening at the time. It is all a blur of memories,certainly the one of me having sex with someone else than your father. I actually never see his face when I try to recapture that flashback or dream or whatever it is. The only thing I see are green eyes looking into mine. Up until now I was always sure that I never had sex with anyone but I am no longer sure about that."

"Are you saying you never had sex before in your life?My dad ended up married after one night with mother. This is one of the things no one talks about in public but that is how Leia Barton became Mrs Kushrenada."

"So the official story was a cover up."

"Well my mother was considered damaged goods as far as grandfather was concerned and being linked to Treize Kushrenada would open up possibilities he could not have before."

"But your father walked out on his wife and started all over again."

"You can say it like that but there was one thing he did not know about until mother was dead:That was me. If he had known about me sooner I think he would have come back for me."

"I think he would have but by the time he knew we were in the middle of the war. I was in outer space and he was confined to earth."

They both stared at each other thinking of Treize and sighed about what might have been. Lady Une looked at her daughter at one point and said"Remember I said that I can't remember that I ever had sex with anyone but that can be checked. I 'll make an appointment with my personal doctor."

"Sally is about 500 km from here. Are you going to drive home just to see her."

"No she happens to be in the area for a conference. She is put in charge of security but I think she can spare a moment of her time."

Later that night when Mariemaya was fast asleep lady Une walked out of the room and went out for a walk. As she was walking along the riverbank she tried to clear her mind from everything that was bothering her. After a little while she looked across the river up the slopes where the vines were growing and started thinking about the green eyes she always sees when a memory or a dream shows her something of the past. She never saw the face that should come with them. She sat down on the grass which was growing on the riverbank and started to wonder who she knew with green eyes. About two hours later she woke up from another sexually tainted dream with her hands touching her privates. She removed her hand from under her skirt wondering what was wrong with herself. Up until this summer she never had wet dreams or even the urge to play with her private parts but ever since she was no longer concentrating on her work and making sure everything at home alright she started to do these things. Was she loosing it? She really needed Sally to look at her as soon as possible.

"You want me to WHAT?"Sally asked surprised.

"Well I want you to check if I am still a virgin. Is that such a strange question?"

"It is coming from you. You are 24 and you are trying to tell me that you are still a virgin. Come on how outdated can one get?"

"Well on that point I might be that kind of girl. And I am fairly certain that I am still a virgin but there are some lost memories indicating otherwise."

"You start to remember things from the war?"Sally asked knowing about lady Une's memory loss from day one.

"It still is a jumble but bits and pieces are somewhat falling together. That is why I have this silly request."

"OK but don't blame me if you don't like the outcome of my check up."

Sally started to ask Une some questions while she examined Une's vagina. She quickly saw that lady Une had not been a virgin for quite some time.

"Well Sally,what is the verdict?"

"Well as far as I can determine I can say without a doubt that you are no longer a virgin but there is also something else that surprises me. Have you been pregnant?"

"Of who?I would known if I had been pregnant."

"That is what I thought. I saw some marks on you indicating an abortion and you don't strike me to be the kind of woman to have an abortion. I think the baby was aborted after you got yourself shot but still it wouldn't explain these marks because only women who have been pregnant before have marks like these." Sally said pointing at some marks on her abdomen.

"I have them as long as I can remember and I know for sure that I haven't been pregnant before the war and as for during the war how did I get pregnant in the first place?"

"Well that is something only you would know if you remember it that is."

"Oh no,I now really start to feel bad about remembering it now. I wonder if I would like what I could find out. It is starting to get weird. You are sure about this abortion?"

"All the traces I see indicate in that direction."

"And the abdominal marks you talked about?"

"As a doctor I should recognise them and conclude you had a child some time ago"

"I definitely don't want to know any more what happened while I was in space,me having sex,getting pregnant without even knowing and to top it of I have been pregnant before but I can't remember having a baby. "

"Maybe you had one but was it born dead and maybe you are just suppressing the memory,and for the aborted baby well you should try to find out who was the father to be."

Mariemaya had been sitting there all the time getting more and more confused by the things that were said by the two adult women. She was quite surprised to hear that her mother had been pregnant before even though she couldn't remember it. Lady Une certainly didn't look as if she had been pregnant before but on the other hand it could explain why she was such a good mother for her. At first Mariemaya thought that it was because she had a slumbering sense of motherhood that surfaced the moment she took her in. Lady Une raised her as if she was her own flesh and blood.

"I think I should leave the two of you alone."Sally said leaving the room.

"Thank you for taking some time for me"Une thanked Sally

"It was nothing,besides that gave me a good excuse to get away from my macho husband Wufei for a while."

With that said Sally closed the door behind her and left the two ladies behind each in their own thoughts. Suddenly Mariemaya stood up ran to her mother and put her arms around her. The girl started to hug her and said"I want you to remember what happened to you during the war. Maybe it is not what we hope for but it is at least better than keep on telling ourselves lies. I love you mum and whatever may come nothing is going to change that."

"I love you to Mariemaya but some things are even for me too much to handle right now. I don't know what more we will find out and if I am going to like it."

"Whatever we find out we can handle it. So what if you had an affair during the war,so what if at some point you decided to leave father,so what if you thought of starting over again,it doesn't have to mean that you never loved my father. I know you must have then as you still do now. It was that love that brought us together,we had to change our way of life and we had to adapt to each other but you became a mother to me after all. Actually you are the best mother a child could wish for. I was not easy on you the first year we were living together but you never lost your temper. I did about everything to upset you and you never got angry but still in some way you could make me regret the things I was doing to you. Motherhood suits you and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You are a textbook example of a mother. The only thing I don't understand is this baby thing for the moment"

"I don't either but I will find out about that as well. It seems like I have lost more memories than the ones from during the war but I recall everything up to a certain point in my life. It seems like the list of people I have to find is getting longer."

Mariemaya tightened her arms around her mother and kissed her before she let go and went to bed. Lady Une looked at her daughter who was peacefully sleeping and lied down herself.

"_I promise that I will always be there for you when you need me. I love you too and I will not let anyone hurt you again. It seems like we were meant to be together although now it doesn't look like it."_

"_Do you really love me?Because you are still so young and I can't believe someone your age is capable of loving someone like me"_

"_A friend once said to me 'in order to live a good life you have to act on your emotions' and that is what_ _I have been doing the past few days. Now I have to go and stop that guy that is destroying the colonies. See you later .Take care of yourself"_

She felt a kiss on her cheek and then she woke up. Lady Une looked around her room and wondered what this dream was all about. This happened the day that pilot she was fond of disappeared but who was that pilot again. The only memory she had from him were green eyes. At the time he was only fifteen and she was in love with him?_"No this couldn't be right. I would not fall in love with a teenager back then or would I. At the time I could have been vulnerable. I wish I could remember what had happened."_She lied down again but she didn't feel very sleepy. Looking at the ceiling she wondered about it all. The bits and pieces she started to remember were still a jumble and nothing seemed to fit completely right. What did Trowa know about all of this. Was he the pilot she had an affair with?According to Heero he was quite close to her. Her heart started beating a little faster while she thought about it. This could have happened but did he remember about this because he never made a move on her,he never indicated that he loved her and that she was his lover during their stay on Barge. Suddenly she was feeling quite aroused by the thought of having him as a lover. She caught herself rubbing her intimate parts again while she thought of the green eyed young man._"Why do I like playing with myself lately? I never had the need to before and now every time I think of the mystery man with the green eyes I start to masturbate."_ She looked over to the room where Mariemaya was lying asleep stood up closed the door and went back to bed undressing herself. Once she lied down she picked up where she left off. A little later she climaxed and fell asleep soon after.

Finally everything seemed to go as Dorothy had planned. She found a job in one of Quattre's offices on earth. She was now working in a daycare centre as a bookkeeper and she could bring in enough money so she could payback the loan she got from Quattre some day. But this morning she was not feeling to well.

"Oh,this is already the third day in a row I wake up and have to run in here to throw up." Dorothy sighed while she stood up and flushed the toilet.

The day before she suffered from nausea about half the time and whenever she thought about eating her stomach turned. She decided to go to a doctor just in case she had caught an infection.

"Good morning Jane,I will not come to work today because I am not feeling well. I hope you can miss me for a day." Dorothy told her boss.

"Hey by the way you behaved yesterday I wondered when you were going to call in sick but don't worry we will be able to go on without you for a few days." Jane answered.

"Well I keep you posted on what is going on. I don't want to loose this job"

"Don't you worry you pretty head about it you are doing a better job already than your predecessor who has worked here for five years. I always had to check her work after she went home and correct the mistakes she made but after five years I got fed up with it so I fired her. Now I just go over the books once a week and I never found a mistake in your work,well every now and then a mistake did show but nothing major,you know." was the reassuring answer Dorothy got.

"Thank you but now I have to go"Dorothy said feeling another run to the bathroom coming up. She cursed her stomach at the moment but there was nothing she could do.After she came out of the bathroom again she made an appointment with her doctor.

Dorothy was waiting for her doctor to call her in but she was actually feeling better already so she wondered what she was doing there. When the doctor called her in she figured it wouldn't hurt to have a check-up anyway because one can never know for sure if they are still healthy.

"Well Ms Catalonia what seems to be the problem"the doctor asked.

"I feel nauseous,have to throw up several times a day and feel completely empty. Now at the moment I am feeling fine but can't tell for sure if that will be the case in an hour."Dorothy answered.

"Ah,did you have intercourse in the past eight weeks?"

"What do you mean?"

"Have you slept with someone?"

"Yes but what would that have to do with this?"

"When was the last time your periods broke?"

"That was..." suddenly Dorothy realised where this was going"six maybe seven weeks ago. Are you telling me I am pregnant?"

"Possibly but there can still be other possibilities. The way you look right now and the way you describe your symptoms I think it could be pregnancy. We have to run a few tests to be completely sure but my instinct tells me you are pregnant."

"Well let's do the tests" Dorothy ordered knowing that with her luck lately she was pregnant.

After the tests were conducted the doctor send her home telling her that he will tell her results as soon as he got them. When she got in her car she started to cry,wondering how she was going to explain this to Quattre.

"_Funny how this has turned out,the night I loose my virginity I somehow get myself pregnant. Now Quattre will think I did this on purpose even though I never wanted this to happen. Now there is no turning back for me and I have to face this whether I like it or not."_Dorothy thought

She started her car,looked around to make sure she could leave safely and started to drive home. Once she got in the phone was ringing.

"Dorothy here,"she answered the phone

"Hey honey it's me"she heard Quattre say"I have great news for you,you are a rich girl again. Duo and I scammed Stryker into buying Duo's scrapyard for ten times the actual value and now he owns a 750.000.000 scrapyard which is actually worth 75.000.000 credits. You got your money back with a little bonus as he promised and Duo has made a huge profit in his sell as well."

"How did you pull that of ?"

"Well I did own part of the scrapyard and Duo was looking for a buyer anyway because Hilde wanted out of the business. So he convinced Stryker that if he wanted to get in the Winner corporation he should start by buying Duo's part of the scrapyard. Unfortunately he had another buyer on the scrapyard who was willing to pay 300.000.000 credits to buy it. So Stryker offered another 100 extra but then the other guy was willing to pay 600 so Stryker raised it to 750.000.000 and the other guy backed out. Then Stryker got the scrapyard and I sold of my share of the scrapyard to a small investor for a small sum of 75.000.000 credits."

"Who was the other bidder?"

"That was me"Quattre laughed."But how about you,I couldn't find you at work and the people there told me you were ill."

"Yes I am but it's better now and if I take enough rest I will be ready to work again tomorrow."

"Well I am coming to Earth tomorrow anyway so I thought to come over to visit you as well"Quattre offered.

"That would be very nice Quattre,"she said thinking about how this could be a better opportunity to tell Quattre about her pregnancy than to tell him over the phone.

"Well then I 'll see you tomorrow evening at seven?"

"That will be fine"

Once she put down the phone she thought about how she was going to tell him since he was the father after all. Her brain was working in overdrive to find the best possible way to break the news to him. While she was going to her study she got an idea. She went over to the phone and dialled a number.

"This is lady Une speaking"

"Hello it's Dorothy,"

"Hey Dorothy,what a nice surprise to call me,how are you?"

"Considering the circumstances pretty good and that is exactly why I am calling."

"What are you talking about?" Lady Une asked knowing about her financial status"You ran completely out of money now."

"No actually that has been taken care of by Quattre. He got my money back from the guy who conned me out of it in the first place."

"I hope he did it in a legal way"

"I don't know how he exactly did it but Duo was involved in it as well."

"They pulled off a con " Une sighed knowing Duo's reputation as the con artist when it came to con a con man.

"Well anyway that is not the reason I called you. Even though it hasn't been confirmed yet I am pregnant. And I have to tell Quattre about it and I don't know how I should tell him."

"First of all what has Quattre to do with it and second how did that happen?" Une responded completely oblivious to Dorothy's latest status.

"Well last month I was looking for a job at the L4 university and while I was there I also visited Quattre. We had dinner and after that we went to my hotel room,well sort of. He actually followed me and surprised me. We talked about my troubles and he offered to help. Then our conversation got a little more personal and before we even realised what we were getting ourselves into we woke up naked next to each other in the same bed. I am not going to tell you any details,is that clear"

"Argh,just the details I was interested in. But there is one detail you have to tell me,did either of you think of some kind of protection." lady Une asked.

"No we didn't"

"No wonder you got pregnant."lady Une gloated

"Well can you help me because it is Quattre's child I am carrying and he is coming over tomorrow."

"Well I don't really know how I would break the news to my boyfriend,hypothetically speaking,but I think I would do what Lucrezia did when she had to tell Milliardo that she was expecting a baby. He came home finding baby socks on his dinner plate and he put one and one together and walked over to Lu,and kissed her. He was as happy as he could be according to her."

"Yes but they were married, we are not."

"Well I can't help you any better than this. Maybe he won't take it to bad but in case he does don't start making a scene because that will only wear you out quicker."

"Maybe I should do something like that as well. Thank you for helping me."

"Take care will you."

"I will."

Dorothy put the phone down,walked out the study into the hall where she passed a full sized mirror and she stopped in front of it looking at herself. She didn't really look as if she was pregnant only a little pale. She picked up the pillow that was lying on a nearby chair and put it down her dress to see how she might look like in a few months. She smiled at herself for being such a vainperson but then again this was going to happen anyway. She wondered how much she would weigh at the end of her pregnancy but she wasn't looking forward to know. Then she pulled the pillow from under her dress and put it back on the chair where it belonged. She got her coat and walked out to go shopping.

The day had finally arrived that lady Une would meet Trowa again. She was quite excited about it,finally someone who had answers. On the way over she called Heero to tell him about the few memories she already recovered. The moment Une mentioned the line ' to live a good life one has to act on his/her emotions' Heero gasped for air.

"What is it Heero?" lady Une asked.

"I once said this to Trowa,it seems to me that he also has an awful lot to explain to me. Well that is assuming that he was your lover on Barge." Heero responded.

"Are you sure?Did you really say that to him?"

"Yes I did. It seems that I pointed you in the right direction after all. I was not sure if he could help you but on the other hand he was working really close to you. How close I never knew."

"Well I don't know either but if he was as close to me as you imply God only knows now what our relationship was like."Une mesmerised

"He never told me about everything that happened there between the two of you so that is something you will have to find out yourself. All I can tell you is not to be disappointed when he can't help you very much."

"I won't be,the things I started to remember are already helping to find back what I lost."

With that said lady Une severed the connection and turned to Mariemaya who was reading the paper she picked up that morning. For a moment the girl looked up and smiled to her mother stroked through her long hair and sighed.

"What is it May,is something the matter?"

"Not really but doesn't he look dreamy" Mariemaya asked showing lady Une a picture of Trowa and his jade green eyes really came out of the picture.

"_Green eyes..._"Lady Une thought_"These eyes are the ones I always see in my dreams,in my memories. Is he the one after all,I will ask him the moment I have the chance and he better has some answers.What is going on with me." _She felt herself getting aroused by the thought of meeting him again and her pulse started to raise again. As she felt herself getting wet and sweaty she tried to suppress the urge to play with herself.

They arrived at the place where the concert was taking place. It was a square near an old Roman gate called 'Porta Nigra' by the local people. The concert had already started but the women didn't mind because they came to speak with Trowa. They were cleared to go backstage where they were met by the organiser.

"Well he hasn't come in yet but in an hour or two he will be here. You are welcome to sit here and listen to the acts that are currently taking the stage."

"We will,it is quite a show. I have to admit I haven't seen a crowd like this since the end of the war when everybody was celebrating the peace. I never imagined that a concert could have such an impact on people."

"It is not the concert that attracts the people it is the stars,one in particular. Where ever Trowa shows up to sing the number of visitors to the concert doubles or even tripples. The square here is now completely filled but soon all the streets leading up to here will be filled too only to catch a glimpse from him. He is the superstar of the moment. Next year I 'll be holding this concert outside the city,I already booked a large field so I can welcome more people to the concert."

"If there will be a next concert with Trowa."

"He signed a contract for 5 years the first year he performed here and kept to the contract ever since. He even had a chance to play elsewhere today making five times as much as he will here but he will come here to join his fans of the first hour as he calls them. He really will be there next year and he is the world's most wanted bachelor so all the female fans will come."

"I can imagine that"Une said looking over at Mariemaya who was studying the picture of Trowa again. " Even Mariemaya is caught up with him. Maybe she is wishing that she was older so she could win his heart."

"I heard that mum,but actually I was picturing him as my stepfather. He would be a great father, well I think he would."

The man looked at Mariemaya and wondered what made her say that. He got the answer before he even was able to pop the question.

"He visited us back home and every time he takes care of me while you were out working. So I can dream of having him as a father" Mariemaya said

"Well lady Une it seems that your daughter is trying to set you up with my greatest star. Not that you would not make a chance but with all the girls he has lying at his feet he can simply choose one and get a happy life with her as well." the organiser teased.

"I don't know too many women who would like to marry a circus clown/acrobat/singer. I can live with a guy like him but can others." Lady Une responded.

"What is going on here Hubert" a man asked looking at Mariemaya and lady Une.

"John this is lady Une and this is Mariemaya." Hubert answered."they are here to see Trowa Barton in person well if they are given a chance off course."

John looked over to lady Une then to Mariemaya and started to laugh.

"What makes you think he would be interested into talking with the two of you if he would not talk to anyone else here." the man said

"Sounds a lot like the Trowa we know, not to talkative, to himself yeah it is the same guy we are talking about. We know him better than you can think."

"Whoa...you think that he will talk to you. Well as his tour manager I will see if he wants to talk to you but first Hubert will you make sure his favourite wine is served."

"Well about the wine,the specific years he likes were sold out last month,the salesman of the vineyard sold them of to a woman and he can't get in touch with her again. He gave another wine but after tasting it I think he won't like that one at all."

"Which wine ,"Une interfered

"Well we need a Maringer Honigberg AC 195 or 197 but both were sold out so he tried to sell me a Trabacher Schlossberg AC196"

"Last month I bought six bottles Maringer Honigberg from AC195 and six bottles of the one from AC197"

"You were the one who bought his last stock."

"Can you spare two bottles of each?" Hubert asked.

"Hmm let me think,"Une teased

"I will see to it that you are able to speak with him"John pleaded

"Are you guys afraid of him."

"The mood swings he gets from time to time are quite unpredictable. Especially when he is here. Last year he emptied a bottle before he entered the stage gave a super performance than went back to his room and got himself wasted. It is not a pretty sight when he is drunk,rambling on about having lost the greatest love of his life to a dead guy. This happens every year right here and nowhere else but here. The rest of his tour he rarely drinks"

"What if I brought the bottles to him myself"lady Une suggested thinking about this latest revelation.

"You think you can help?He is known for these mood swings around here."

"I have the feeling that he will be happy to see me."

"Ok but where is the wine."

"I have left it in the car."

Lady Une walked out got to her car picked up the requested bottles and brought them in. Hubert immediately put them on ice for about 15 minutes so the wine was chilled to the required temperature.

Lady Une picked the bottles up and went on her way to Trowa's dressing room. She knocked on the door and waited outside for his reply.

"Enter" she heard a soft voice say.

"Good afternoon I was asked to bring you your drinks." Lady Une said as she entered the room.

Trowa looked up at the moment he heard her voice and turned around,"Well this is a surprise,you would be about the last person I would expect right now. I thought you didn't care much for country music." was his reply.

"Well someone once sang country song to me and I learned through that song to appreciate the music. But the funny thing is I can remember the song but not the person who sang it to me."

"Do you know what song?"

"Sweet lady"

"I believe that I have this song somewhere in my repertoire, would you like to hear it."

"Why not"Une said.

He picked up his guitar, started to sing the song and after the first words came out of his mouth lady Une started to shake. It was Trowa who had sung the song to her about five years ago and this song always made her feel warm inside:loved, secure and... free. Why did she feel this way about this song?When Trowa finished singing tears rolled down Une's cheeks.

"What is it lady Une?Did I upset you?Is something wrong?" Trowa asked.

"Trowa,I don't know what is going on myself but whenever I hear this song I feel loved, secure and liberated without knowing the reason why and that is why I came here for. Since the end of the war I am left with a hole in my memory and all the people I asked to help me jog my memory weren't able to help me. You really are my last hope on recollecting my memories. Please, will you help me?"Une pleaded.

"I knew that this day would come someday and I can tell you everything I know but whether you believe me or not is up to you." Trowa reasoned.

"Whatever you tell me can't be as bad as the jumble of things I started to remember but until now it doesn't make any sense to me as in to what order they fit."

"Tell me about them"

Lady Une started of with her recalled memories while Trowa listened to her to get a picture of the things she remembered and thought carefully about how he would tell her his side of the story.

"...That's about it, I don't remember anything more than this." Une finished.

"Do you really want to know what happened on Barge?Because the story as you remember it is based on reports you and lt Nichol wrote and not the whole truth. I know very well what happened. The part of your schizophrenic behaviour is where you are right about but the Colonel and the lady merged into a magnificent person and that is why part of your memories are blurred or non existant. I can help you but in the end you are the one who needs to remember and not take over the memories I have."

"I might remember a few things if you tell me the things that happened."

"Ok but don't blame me if the story won't go the way you thought it would go. It started after Milliardo Peacecraft came to outer space and you handed me my first mission together with Heero. I took my chance to prove to lt Nichol that I was on his side and not on anyone else's side. Heero played his part and the both of us brought Milliardo back to Barge. He had a word with you for a while and after that he went to a military installation occupied by the Alliance. You and an army of mobile dolls were dispatched to take out the installation but Zechs interfered in the battle as well as I did."

"But I remember that you remained on Barge since you were our gundam pilot. So how did you interfere."

"I did by taking fortress Barge of target at the moment it fired its main gun. When Milliardo brought you back to Barge you realised that lt Nichol was no longer the soldier loyal to you and Treize but a soldier loyal to Romefeller and all that came with it so you started your own little rebellion. You put him in jail and were about to take matters in your own hand from that point on. After that you found out that Treize was having affairs back home during the time you were out in space. There are still reports about that on the net if you want to check that. Actually it was I who found out about Treize's infidelity but you sneaked up on me and read on my computer what I found out. You asked me if this were official reports and even though I wanted to lie to you I did not. I didn't understand myself at the time, I disliked you but in some way I liked you as well so I did not want to lie to you."

"You never lied to me as far as I can remember even not that night. I remember something about the two of us talking about relationships and the way we seemed to end up hurt by the great loves of our lives."

"Well I met the great love of my life back then. As the two of us spend the night talking we got ourselves locked in into a sector where the heating was turned of for the night. Since there was no way of communicating with the rest of the ship we were forced to survive by ourselves. Luckily I had my sleeping bag with me that evening since I had planned to stay there anyway. The both of us shared the sleeping bag during that night,although you had a little problem with sleeping together almost naked, but in order to keep warm, because the temperature would drop to minus twenty degrees centigrade, you did as I said otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation now. When morning came the two of us ended up making out in the sleeping bag. Somewhere during that night we had fallen in love with each other. I can't really put my finger on where and when it happened but it did happen."

"It was the way you held me into your warm arms to keep me from freezing that made me realise that you really care for people even though I was your enemy at the time. We were also having a very intimate night as we were sharing each other's body heat. Thinking about it you could have gotten rid of me that night or even take advantage of me but you only wanted me to survive the night. I remember even the sounds of you snoring and making sure that I would not feel the cold of the night even though you where freezing yourself. In the end I put my arms around you so you would feel warmer."

"It seems like some of your memories are returning. As morning came you told me that you wanted to end your romantic relationship with Treize and concentrate on a more professional relation with him so you and I could start a relation on our own. We spent a lot of time together and you know, no one even found out that the two of us were involved with each other. Then there was the night we spend together in my room. You came in that night looking for someone who would listen to you. You were thinking about standing up to Romefeller and Oz. You saw that what Romefeller wanted was not what you wanted and definitely not what Mr Kushrenada was hoping for. The both of you had a common goal:Total pacifism. Romefeller did not want this and everyone who would oppose them would be eliminated so you choose to desert Oz and oppose Tubarov as well. You were lying in my arms at a certain point and started kissing me. Before we even realised what we were doing..."

"We slept with each other,I remember Trowa,I really remember this night. It was our last night together,Our last morning we spent together."

As tears started to roll down to Une's cheeks once more, she realised that the feeling of being lost was disappearing and making place for an even happier feeling of having found again what she had lost. Her memories started to come back to her slowly but surely.

"I did not want you to go after this gundam pilot that was wreaking up colonies in outer space but if we just kept sitting there he would have destroyed us all. You and Heero were the heroes of that day but only Heero came back. I on the other hand was settling a score with Tubarov and ended up being shot. Was that a warning for things to come or was it just an amazing coincidence." Une spoke up

"I thought about this as well and honestly I think it was meant to be. The two of us accomplished a lot on our own. I became a great star and you became a world saviour. Sometimes late at night I think about how things might have been if we stayed around all the time during the war. I never regretted my amnesia since it showed me that I have a home where I belong and it thought me that you should keep your loved ones as close as you can. You were the one I had most trouble with since you didn't remember what we had up till then. We were in love with each other on the day we nearly got ourselves killed and never had the chance to say goodbye to each other or maybe carry on the relationship we had. More then ever I want to say how much I love you but I don't know how you feel about me."

Lady Une looked into his eyes and she saw the tears he was holding back. He really loved her and now she was remembering what she felt the day they parted so long ago and that feeling overwhelmed her. She walked over to him threw her arms around his neck, pulled him in closer and started to kiss him. He took her closer into his arms, kissed her back and tears started to fall from his eyes. For a while they kept looking in each other's eyes drying each other's tears. They kept kissing each other for a long time. After a while they sat down next to each other and started talking again.

"Trowa why did you never tell me we were a couple during the war?"

"Would you have believed me?"

"I guess not but on the other hand it might have triggered something to make me remember what really happened. Now I first remembered bits and pieces from something I was not really sure how to act on them. Could they just have been dreams or nightmares,have these things happened or did I just make them up."

"All the things you told me were real recollections of your memories. So all I had to do is put them in the right order and fill the gaps. The only thing I could never be sure of was how you would react to them but by the way you kissed me I now know for sure that we were in love back then as we are now. I love you Ann and now I let no one come between us again. You know at this very day five years ago I promised that I would always be there for you."

"I have to tell you something else I found out about,"Lady Une started"I got pregnant at the day I was shot and while I was out in a coma the baby was aborted in order to save my life"

"I know,I found the medical file that told me about your condition after Tubarov shot you. It pained me to know that you were in a coma and the child we could possibly have had was killed before it even got a chance to live but that is something we can't change. Now we better decide where we go from here and let the future bring us what it has in store for us."

With that said they both kissed each other again for a long time.

Dorothy was looking at herself in the mirror thinking about how she was going to tell Quattre he was going to be a father. She thought that he might be upset and start a scene himself but she would worry about that at the moment itself. Now she had to worry about herself and make sure she didn't put to much stress on herself. She walked into the dining room looking at the baby clothes she bought the day before hoping that Quattre would somehow catch on since they were displayed in such a way that it would almost impossible to overlook them. After she checked everything again she wondered if everything was perfect enough to receive her guest. Suddenly the doorbell rang and she knew it was now or never.

"Hello Quattre,"She said opening the door"it is good to see you again. I hope you had a pleasant trip"

"Hello Dorothy,"He answered her"I had a pleasant trip and I am glad to see you as well,how are you doing today?"

"I am fine,thank you,"she answered and then she kissed him.

"Well Dorothy I am glad you are feeling better although you still don't look to good."

"Oh it's part of the condition I'm in"she said as they entered the dining room. Quattre immediately saw the baby clothes and started to wonder why they were lying there.

"Somebody is thinking about babies here,who is pregnant?"he asked cheerfully.

"Well...funny you ask,the person that is pregnant is standing right here."she said hoping he wouldn't go ballistic. Quattre's face paled,his jaw fell open and he held on to the table. For a moment Dorothy feared he was going to collapse but he got himself together again and walked over to her.

"Am I the father?"he asked and Dorothy nodded as tears were rolling down from her eyes.

"Now I blew it. My sisters will all be quite upsetwhen I am going to tell them. When did you find out?"

"Well I found out yesterday. I didn't want to tell you over the phone because I wanted you near me when I was going to tell you and when you called it was not even confirmed yet that I was pregnant but this morning the doctor called me and confirmed I am pregnant."

"This means that whether we like it or not we have to get married in a hurry. Why couldn't I keep my pants on that night?"

"It's not all your fault I am as much to blame as you are. I should have thought about some kind of protection too. Now I don't know where to go from here but rushing into a marriage is the last thing I want."

"I don't want that either but you don't know my sisters and how they feel about having children before marriage. No knowing them I will be forced to do the right thing."

"I think I will have to think about that because I have the feeling that my future in-laws will somehow try to influence or relationship the rest of our life."

"As if you would let them. I have the feeling that my sisters have to be on their guard when it will come to protecting your family. You will protect me and the baby from their constant meddling in our life."

"Quattre,I don't know what to say ,I know that you love me as much as I love you but your sisters could be right by making sure no harm will come to you. On the other hand I need you too,now more than ever."

"I will do what is right,even if it means going to hell and back."

"You have already done that,the day we fought each other. Now we need each other and I will be there for you. I love you so much I wouldn't want to live without you."

"The same goes for me to,now let's eat I am hungry and I bet you are to"

"I don't know" she said suddenly turning green as her stomach started to turn. She ran off to the nearest bathroom with Quattre following her since he had a good idea what was going to happen. He held her hair back when she was throwing up and after she had finished she looked up at him, thanked him and smiled. She knew that he would be there for her and the baby. They went back to the dining room where dinner was being served. Quattre was a bit worried that Dorothy might get another attack of morning sickness but sat next to her anyway and the both started eating while discussing future plans.

After a while Trowa and lady Une looked at each other and decided that maybe it was time to see the others. They left the room looking for Mariemaya and Trowa's tour manager and found them in the backstage area where they were enjoying the act on stage. Une sneaked up to Mariemaya and tickled her sides. The girl turned around to give her attacker an earful but when she saw her smiling mother she changed her mind. She looked over to Trowa who tipped off the hat of his tour manager and started to laugh.

"Trowa? I never suspected that you could be such a joker" John said.

"I am a circus clown nine months a year remember,I only do this thing to do something for all my victims. The money I make doing this is for them. It will never wash away the blood on my hands but it could be a good start."

"There are still enough people who would like to put a bullet into my chest. Even though I do as much as I can for the people I have hurt during the war. The one who most deserved to kill me was the first one to forgive me." Une sighed thinking back at the day Relena forgave her for killing her father.

"We all have been through a lot back then but I want to leave that behind us now and start over again preferably together with you Ann"

"I wouldn't dream of it to let you go again after we found each other again. I won't let you go anywhere without knowing where you are."

"Let Cathy take care of that but if we get married I think I will have to stay home because the circus life is not a life for you. I don't mean that you can't handle such a life but it just doesn't suit you. You are to much of a lady to live the life on the road."

"Well I can always use a good man to join the preventers. You are an infiltration specialist and we lack that kind of people. So you can teach my people how to infiltrate organisations that threaten the peace and I can keep an eye on you and the rest of you gundampilots."

"I think the only pilot that will remain out of your reach then is Quattre but then again his sisters protect him from doing something stupid"

"Actually talked about doing something stupid, Dorothy is expecting a baby and ... Quattre is the father"

"You are kidding aren't you?"

"..."

"You 're not, they really are expecting a baby,since when did you know."

"Since yesterday,Dorothy called me for some advice on how to break the news to Quattre. Since they aren't married yet I think that Quattre won't be to happy about that because now he has to explain himself to all of his sisters who will force him to marry her now. I suggested her that she could give him a present containing baby socks or something like that and then prepare him for the big news"

Lady Une just finished talking when Trowa's cellphone rang. He picked up and heard Quattre at the other end

"Trowa I have big news for you pall,...I...I..."

"What is it Quattre?"acting as he didn't know what happened.

"I am going to be a father soon so I wanted to ask you to be my best man on our wedding next month."

"Since when do you have a girlfriend you could make pregnant?"

"Since a month or so ago and if you are really curious about who it is am I marrying well it is Dorothy as you always told me I was going to marry some day."

"You are taking two big steps at once my friend but I will be there for you. I wish the both of you the best of luck. Oh I almost forgot can I bring my girlfriend along with her daughter."

"What girlfriend?Since when do you have a girlfriend?"

"Actually since the war but well we were separated for a while because we both lost our memories. It took her five years to remember what was going on between us back then. Today we got back together again."

"Who is your lover?"

"Lady Une"

"I never expected you to fall in love with her. How did that happen?Never mind we will talk about that some other time but for now I wish you both best of luck." Quattre replied. Then he hung up to call the others and Trowa turned to lady Une.

"We are invited to a wedding. Quattre and Dorothy are getting married because they are expecting a baby. How did they get into this anyway?"

"They were sleeping with each other without thinking about any kind of protection."

"That is..."

Trowa didn't say what everyone there was thinking and then Trowa went over to Mariemaya whispered something in her ears and went back to his room to prepare because he was next to go on stage.

"What was that all about."

"You will find out soon enough mum"

"I don't think I like the sound of this young lady"

Mariemaya shrugged and watched the show on stage. Lady Une knew something was up and there was no stopping what was going to happen. About fifteen minutes later Trowa walked on stage and started singing. He sang a number of up tempo songs she never heard before, then he performed a few ballads to end up the show with his already famous performance of the song' My sweet lady'. The audience went wild after this song and demanded for an encore. He picked up the microphone and started to talk to the people present.

"There is a story to the last song I sang here,about five years ago I fell in love with someone in the middle of the war. At the time we were enemies but I got to know her as a completely different person when I got a chance to get closer to her. We got very close but as always fate got in the way and separated us for years. Today we found each other again and renewed our love,may I introduce to you the love of my life:lady Une."

He gestured Une to get on stage toward him but she froze. She could face a riot,she could face the cameras or even nosy journalists but standing on stage with her lover was another matter. Before she knew what happened Mariemaya had pushed her on stage and all the people started to applaud for her.

"Well this lady is also the Chief preventer as everyone knows and if she would not do this job we would not be having such a ball here. The reason I tell you all this is because I am going to perform a new song here I had saved this song for the day we would come together again."

He gave a few directions to the band and started to sing while he took lady Une in his arms for a few moments and turned to the audience to show them how much he really loved her.

_Sometimes late at night  
I lie awake and watch her sleeping  
She's lost in peaceful dreams  
So I turn out the lights and lay there in the dark  
And the thought crosses my mind  
If I never wake up in the morning  
Would she ever doubt the way I feel  
About her in my heart _

If tomorrow never comes  
Will she know how much I loved her  
Did I try in every way to show her every day  
That she's my only one  
And if my time on earth were through  
And she must face the world without me  
Is the love I gave her in the past  
Gonna be enough to last  
If tomorrow never comes

'Cause I've lost loved ones in my life  
Who never knew how much I loved them  
Now I live with the regret  
That my true feelings for them never were revealed  
So I made a promise to myself  
To say each day how much she means to me  
And avoid that circumstance  
Where there's no second chance to tell her how I feel

_If tomorrow never comes  
Will she know how much I loved her  
Did I try in every way to show her every day  
That she's my only one  
And if my time on earth were through  
And she must face the world without me  
Is the love I gave her in the past  
Gonna be enough to last  
If tomorrow never comes_

After Trowa finished the song the audience went completely mad and started to ask for more but he had to disappoint them because it was time to close up. He took lady Une in his arms and helped her of stage. Once off stage lady Une looked around to see where Mariemaya was but she couldn't find the girl. Trowa was looking for the little lady as well but where ever they looked they couldn't find her.

"Hubert, have you seen where Mariemaya is because we can't find her" Trowa asked the man

"Just before you came of stage she was here with me. I don't know what has actually happened but one moment she was next to me and the next she is gone." Hubert answered.

"Lets go to the dressing rooms, maybe she will be there."lady Une suggested.

They looked through all the dressing rooms and found Mariemaya in Trowa's dressing room together with John. The both of them were playing a game while lady Une walked in.

"Well well,her you are I thought I'd lost you."lady Une started the conversation"Why did you go here?"

"I wanted to get a rest,"Mariemaya told her mother"I am feeling very tired."

"You are not the only one"Trowa said "I think we all should call it a day. Let's go to our hotel,take a shower and go to sleep. Where are you girls staying?"

"In hotel 'Die drei könige' in Bernkastel-Kues which is about forty kilometres from here." Une answered his question.

"That's odd,I am staying there too,Heero recommended the place to me six weeks ago. I always ask around for good hotels before I go on tour. I bet he recommended you the hotel too."

"No,actually Mariemaya chose the hotel and this region to take a holiday. I wonder where she got the idea from?" Ann said looking over at Mariemaya.

"Hey I was told this region was a nice place to visit or to go on holiday."the young lady replied.

"Nor Heero nor Relena had anything to do with the decision to come out here?"

"No actually I got the idea from Milliardo. He said that if I should be given a chance to come out here I should take it."

Lady Une now started to wonder why Milliardo should recommend her daughter to go to the Mosel if there were far more interesting places in the world they could go to. Maybe al of her friends have teamed up with each other to make her get together with Trowa but that means they all knew about her affair with him on Barge. Trowa told her that no one knew back then but maybe he told someone about it later on.

"Trowa have you ever told anyone about our relationship we had on fortress Barge."she asked

"Actually no but Heero once asked me what our relationship was like on Barge. When I told him that we were nothing more then friends he looked at me and simply said "Some day the two of you will be back together again" as if he knew there had been more between us than I was willing to admit. Sometimes it seems like he always knows the answers before he even asks the question. Sometimes I have the feeling he knows what the future has in store for us."

"You think that this is a side effect from his exposure to the Zero-system?"

"I think it must be,I sometimes have moments feeling like I have been in a certain situation before but then again this couldn't be because I have never been there before."

"So the system also has some kind of an influence on you too. You only used the Zero once but that seems about enough to have an effect on someone's mind. Wufei has never mentioned something like that before and Heero,well you know Heero better than I do, he rarely discusses his experiences with the Zero."

"I can tell you one thing,be glad you never had the opportunity to get to know the system. The system would have made you see things that may have terrified you. The thing is if you know how the system works you can be able to handle it but up till now only two people were able to master it. Well maybe we could add one but he just was able to keep it together once."

"So only Heero and Quattre were overexposed..."

"No,Heero and Milliardo were overexposed to the system since the Wing Zero and the Epyon were the gundams with the system installed. Quattre has also been exposed to the system longer than any of us but he never showed any signs of strange behaviour."

"Well whatever,now I know how the two of us were brought together again"

With that said lady Une silently thanked Milliardo and Heero for making sure that she and Trowa were back together again. She took Mariemaya by the hand and together with Trowa she walked to her car. When they arrived there Trowa gave her a kiss and told her to see her at the hotel again.


	2. Lost Child

The next morning lady Une woke up with her head lying on someone's chest. She looked up and saw Trowa's face still in a blissful sleep. She recaptured the previous day with a great feeling of security. She looked at his face wondering how long he would sleep. He opened his eyes and looked down into her eyes and started "Good morning,how do you feel this morning."

"Loved" was the only answer Trowa got.

He took her in his arms, kissed and caressed her. She felt his hands going al over her body but she didn't mind because to her he was her knight in shining armour ready to protect her from whatever danger she might get herself into. Trowa started to kiss her in a few more intimate places making her push him back.

"Haven't you had enough last night," she laughed.

"Well...I try to make up for the past four years." he joked.

"Hmm,missed me that much?" she asked while she pushed him down on the bed and started to play around with his senses. She ran her fingers through his hair while she was kissing him in his most intimate places. After a few minutes the two were quite aroused looking at each other knowing that if they wouldn't stop now they would go all the way again but lady Une couldn't resist his muscular body and continued with what she was doing. The both of them didn't think twice any more doing what they wanted the most at the time. About half an hour later the both of them were reaching their climax when Mariemaya walked in. She looked at the scene for a few seconds and closed the door again before the two of them noticed her. She waited a few minutes with a big smile,knocked on the door and entered to see her mother and Trowa holding each other with a blush on their faces.

"Hey you guys,did the two of you have a pleasant night together. By the noises I heard during the night I think you have."she said with a grin.

"Ah,...well...we..." Une started feeling ashamed but Trowa took over "We had a lovely night together,it is a shame that I must leave again tomorrow."

"So you and mum really love each other"the little girl concluded.

"And we love you too" was his response.

"I am a little young to be your girlfriend,I think you better stick with mum." Mariemaya joked. She walked up to the bed and before she knew what happened her mother picked her up laid her down on the bed and started tickling her for a while. The three of them played around for a while until Trowa decided it was time for breakfast. The two women pushed him on the bed and ran of to the bathroom. He stood up smiled while he started to collect his clothes and went out to his room which happened to be right across the hall.

After an hour they were sitting together for breakfast talking about the past few days. While they were discussing how they would be spending the rest of the day they saw Heero and Relena enter the dining room. Trowa waved at them and the couple came over. Lady Une had the impression the two of them hadn't had much sleep but then again neither had she.

"Good morning Trowa,Ann and Mariemaya" Relena greeted while Heero just nodded.

"Good morning to you two too,"Trowa said "Are you here on holiday too or are you spying on us."

"If I wanted to spy on you I wouldn't stay in the same hotel as you. No we are here to unwind a little for the weekend."Heero answered.

"What are you two really doing here?"lady Une wondered.

"Well"Heero started "I came here to tell you something. You know the day I sent you off at the office I took all the files from your desk. There was a very interesting file between them. You are looking for a missing relative aren't you?"

He opened the briefcase he was carrying and pulled out two files. He laid them in front of him as he continued his story."You are looking for your little brother Jonah well I took the liberty of helping you out since I had some time to kill back home. When I read the file and looked through the contents of a box that came with it I found hair samples which I immediately send of to a lab for DNA-testing. After a few days I got the results back and I found out there were three different sets of DNA.I started comparing them to the samples we had on file and after six days I got some strange results. First of all the samples showed that there were two people coming from the same family,your family. So the hair samples I had to work with were yours and your sister's. I was able to trace back the DNA of your mother and your father because of the genetic make up from you and your mother's DNA was on file after she had been killed. Your brother had a different father but the same mother according to the results I had but here it gets very weird:the DNA results tell me that your brother's father was no one else than the late peace oriented leader Heero Yuy who died four years before your mother was pregnant with Jonah. It caused quite a disturbance in your family since your mother was told that she would be fertilised with the seed of a Caucasian male. You see your father was incapable of getting male offspring and he wanted to have a son. In order to achieve that your mother went to a clinic to get inseminated from a donor which enabled her to get a son. After birth it became clear they were fooled by the clinic and your father didn't want this boy to be his heir. Your mother wanted to keep the baby anyway but your father didn't want it so the baby was send of to someone else six months after birth. Since then your mother was not allowed to have another child and he would see to it that his daughters would never remember they had a brother. He saw his son as a threat to him and removed everything in the house that could possibly make anyone remember him living there."

"But I don't remember Jonah living at home." lady Une started.

"No you don't because your father had your memories of that particular period in your life removed and replaced by other memories so that no one got hurt but by doing that he made the start to an even bigger problem later on in your life. Because the memories regarding your brother were not completely removed they started to live a life of their own and at some point leaked through the implanted memories and this is the reason why you ended up being schizophrenic during the war. Your mother's death made it all worse,you only remember her being killed somewhere in Berlin but that is another brain implant. In reality your father shot her at home in front of you so you had to get a new memory wipe and a reimplantation of memories. Needless to say that it also had an effect on your life later. The implantations were screwing up your real memories and they started to mix at a certain point and you didn't really know who you were and what you were supposed to do. I found that out by interviewing the people who used to work in your parents household. Even the story of your sister was quite shocking to hear. I think that triggered a part of you that had been dormant for years,the real you. In the end you ended up being two people in one,the woman your father had turned you into:Colonel Une and the real you: Lady Une. After you got yourself shot you healed yourself mentally as well as physically and became the person we now know. As for your brother now. He ended up in the hands of the man that sent your mother to the clinic that fertilised her and took care of him ever since the baby was send to him for a long time."

"Who was that man?"

"His name was Solo which was nothing more than a nickname because he was some kind of a loner. He took care of him for a long time and then he gave him to someone else who in the end gave him a chance on finding his family or what was left of it anyway."

"Who was that man?" Une asked again

"The man was a scientist who liked him very much but he couldn't teach him everything he had to know about his background since he had to train that boy for another reason than what he turned out doing in the end."Heero continued"Now I have been searching for my family as well for a long time and I have been looking for clues in order to find out about them. Dr J gave me a picture of a woman and said this was my mother. When I looked at the picture I found a lot of resemblances with someone I know. I was shocked at first but without any hard evidence there was no proof to me this woman was my mother. Now I have the proof I needed. The DNA tests confirm what I have known for four years now."

After he said it he pulled out a picture of his mother and showed it to lady Une who looked very surprised at him and started to shake.

"Heero this is a picture of my mother so if she is your mother then ..."

"I am your lost brother and DNA tests confirm it. Here is the file with the results so you can confirm it yourself." Heero said looking at her. Then he walked over to her put his arms around her and hugged her tightly. Tears were falling down their faces and they held on to each other as if they didn't want to let go of each other.

"Hey you two would you please break it up because there are two people getting jealous here"Mariemaya interrupted them. They let go of each other and looked over to Trowa ,who was smiling and Relena who was wiping a few tears out of her eyes.

"Heero,"Une started"now you know who you really are what will you be calling yourself from now:Heero Yuy or Jonah Une?"

"I will be known for the rest of my life as Heero Yuy and you can keep the entire Une inheritance for what I care. I have inherited the entire fortune of our mother and my father. My birth was actually planned by the Barton foundation and they held on to the Yuy fortune but once I was a confirmed heir they handed it over to me. As for our mother's fortune I decided to split it between us since you have as much right to it as I do. Maybe mother thought that as long as I was not confirmed dead that your father couldn't spend her entire fortune on the Romefeller foundation and Ariana and you would get a part of the inheritance after all."

"Mother knew what would happen with her money once she was dead and that was the reason you were the only heir in her will but now you and I are together at last and now I don't want to lose you again,my little brother."lady Une said with a smile

"It seems like today is the reunion day for all of us."Trowa started"Ann and me got back together as a couple,and you Heero found your family again. I 'd suggest to drink a glass of wine to that."

"So you want to have relationship with my sister"Heero teased"What will you do if I disapprove."

"Go ahead anyway it is not like you have anything to say about that."

"I won't, you are one of my best friends so I would rather have you as my brother-in-law then someone else although it is a little to soon to go into that now. Guys,Relena and I have something to tell you,you know we are a couple for some time now so we decided to get married this fall."

"You two are finally making the step,congratulations you two" Une responded.

"Yes,and would you like to be my maid of honour"Relena asked.

"I would love to but why me? I am not really your best friend and if you are doing this because Heero happens to be my brother then that is a bad reason as well. So why?"

"Once you really hurt me but now you would rather sacrifice yourself for me and the ideals I represent that is why I want you to be my maid of honour."Relena explained.

"So who is going to be the best man Heero?" Trowa asked.

"Guess.. I 'll give you a hint: talks to much"

"Duo?You are KIDDING. Why would you ask that irresponsible braid head as your best man."

"He sometimes can be a decent man and the threat of getting his head blown off might make him act the way we would like him to during the ceremony,after that I won't care less how he acts."Heero joked.

Everyone started laughing and brought up the Winner-Catalonia wedding .Everyone agreed on how things between Quattre and Dorothy had grown in something really beautiful.

"They will have a beautiful daughter in a year from now"said Heero making everyone's head turn.

"What makes you say that?" Relena asked

"I know why" Trowa answered looking at the strange glow he saw in Heero's eyes,a glow he knows to well. Suddenly Heero's cellphone rang,he answered the phone and with a smile telling the others he would be out for a while.

"Yes you can talk now."

"Well ,"the voice on the other end said "the DNA sample you asked to investigate further brought me to a very terrifying conclusion."

"What is the conclusion."

"You wouldn't believe me but the sample was from another member of the Une family as we established but it was not an aunt but a niece or sister depending from the point of view."

"What are you saying,"

"The sample suggests that this girl could be a daughter of either lady Une or her sister Ariana. The father of this child is clearly Sebastian Robert Une. I have searched the DNA database to find out more about her and there was more. The girl is still alive living on earth staying in an orphanage since AC192 sixth of June. No family ever wanted to adopt her since she remind to many people of lady Une and even the people who take care of her think this girl is lady Une's daughter so they fear that she might grow up to be like her."

"Where is the orphanage?"

"The orphanage you have to go to is in Cologne. Shall I make an appointment?"

Heero started to think about this latest revelation and wondered how many times his sisters' memories had been altered. He wondered if he could ever find out the truth about his family. Maybe going to the orphanage wouldn't be a bad idea.

"Well make an appointment with them and tell them four maybe five people will come."

"Alright chief,I 'll let you know the details as soon as possible."

Heero walked back to the table where everyone was eating.

"Something wrong back at the office,"Une asked

"No but there is something right here that is wrong,"Heero started "All the DNA samples we have been looking at were either mine,yours,Ariana's or our parents' but there was one odd sample and the expert I hired to find out as much there was possible about this sample. Now it turns out to be a sample of another member of our family. Ann have either you or Ariana been pregnant?"

"What?" lady Une wondered "I can't imagine myself being pregnant nor Ariana and if one of us was pregnant I can't remember it."

"I start to wonder how many times your memories have been altered over the years."

"Well certainly not since my fourteenth birthday because I left home and entered the academy."

"What happened on you fourteenth birthday?" Heero asked.

"I don't really want to talk about that,besides it wasn't that much."

"What happened?"Heero asked again but this time in a more demanding tone.

Lady Une suddenly looked surprised by the way that Heero was asking her what happened that day. It seemed as if he knew something she didn't want to tell especially not here where everyone else present could hear it.

"Lets go somewhere private."lady Une gestured everyone at the table to follow her to her room. Once in her room she sat down on the bed with Mariemaya next to her. Trowa sat down on a chair while Relena and Heero sat down in the sofa.

"On my fourteenth birthday,"lady Une began "my father took me to a party of the Romefeller foundation. I met several people there including Milliardo and Dorothy. Since I was a young girl I had no idea what my father was up to. He was actually trying to marry me off to one of the families present at the party. I was not really playing along with the game he wanted me to play and in the end of the evening no family of importance actually showed interest in me which was fine by me so I could choose my own life partner. When we came home my father was not to pleased and said that the next time I should behave even more like a lady or he would make sure that I became the way he wanted me to be. He told me that obedience was a women's greatest virtue and he would teach me that to. I told him to go to hell and that I wanted to have a life of my own."Then she looked at Mariemaya who now sensed there was more to the story then her mother had told her before. "I went out of the living room up the stairs but I didn't get up the stairs because he pushed me down and started hitting me with his belt. He told me that every time I would disobey him or even think about it he would give me the spanking of a lifetime. I looked at him and told him to bring it on because he couldn't hurt me more than he already had in the past. I had faint memories of him killing mother although she wasn't killed at home as I remembered. He said he could hurt me more than that so he dragged me down to the basement where he chained me to a wall. He picked up a whip and used it on me for a long time until my back was bleeding and I couldn't stand up any more. Then he asked me again if I was going to obey him from now on but I refused to do as he wanted me to. He mentioned I was just like my mother and started beating me with his fists. He made sure that he didn't hit me in the face or any other place that couldn't be covered with clothes but it hurt never the less. After fifteen minutes he asked again how I was going to behave for the rest of my life. I told him that he should be treated the same way as he had treated me or mum. He said he did a lot more to mum than he had with me up to that point and since I still refused any cooperation he was going to show me what else he had done to our mother. He took away whatever was left of my clothes and pushed me against the wall and he ...he raped me"At this point lady Une started to cry while Mariemaya put her arms around her. Heero's eyes shot flames and Trowa was clenching his fists. Relena walked over to lady Une and held her in her arms as well. Everyone was shocked about what had happened to her but there was nothing anyone could do about it now. Fifteen minutes passed before lady Une continued he story "After that I told him I would do anything he wanted me to. He held me in his arms and said everything would be alright as long as I would behave myself. I went to bed and waited until he was sleeping. The next day I applied in the academy and also filed charges against my father but the charges were dropped after an intervention from duke Dermail on his behalf. I refused to go home and my instructors backed me up since most of them had seen the wounds the cuts and the bruises I had when I entered the academy. They protected me while I tried to convince Ariana to follow me as well but she never did. She killed herself according to the reports I 've seen about her death but I still think she was killed by our father and the suicide note wasn't even real too. And Heero if there is another child in our family it isn't mine but maybe Ariana's."

"We 'll find out soon enough but to do so we first need to find out what happened to Ariana as well. If you don't mind I will exhume Ariana's remains to further prove our theory and then we decide what to do with the child that was put in the orphanage eight years ago. I hear she resembles you a lot."Heero said.

"Well Ariana resembled mother the most of us and father told us every day how much we looked like mum. I think he would have raped me more than once if I had stayed home but I think he abused Ariana instead of me as revenge for what I had done. I should have stayed home so I could protect Ariana but I ran because I was afraid of what he would think up next to hurt me. Well now I know."

A few moments later Heero's cellphone rang again,he answered the phone and the expert that called him before was on the line. "Mr Yuy I was able to make an appointment for tomorrow afternoon with the people of the orphanage and they are very happy to hear that you show some interest in this girl."

"You never mentioned her name,"Heero realised "what is her name."

"According to the director who was a nurse back then the mother,who happened to be a teenage girl,the baby was called Annie. Her full name was Annie Johanna Une but she never mentions the full name to the people because the Une family is not exactly the kind of family you want to be associated with."

"Why not?"

"I heard that Sebastian Une was a beast when it came to his family. He openly declared that every family member had to do exactly as he wanted or else he would teach them a lesson. He once even spanked his eldest daughter in public,the girl was twelve years old back then but he came down on her very hard. Everyone present saw how he kept hitting her bottom until she started bleeding. Now everyone thinks that is one of the reasons why lady Une became so cruel during the war and whatever she would do now will not help to even change the bad reputation her name has. The best thing that can happen to her is to get married and take on her husbands name or change her name to a neutral name."

"Or maybe we should start showing the people the truth about the Une family."Heero said while he hung up. "Tomorrow we can visit our younger niece. The young lady is named after her aunt according to the people of the orphanage."

"You mean Ariana did have a child and she named it Annie."lady Une spoke up.

"She did and tomorrow afternoon we will meet her,I can't hardly wait to see her but now I have to set up an exhumation."

Heero left the room followed by Trowa who wanted to talk to his tour manager since he wanted to be with lady Une when they were visiting the last relative she didn't know about. Relena and Mariemaya were looking at lady Une who was lying down on the bed crying. Mariemaya looked up at Relena wondering what to do but even Relena couldn't do more then helplessly watching how lady Une slowly was turning into an emotional wreck. Relena sat down next to lady Une,laid a hand on her shoulder and tried to comfort her but she knew she couldn't find the right words to say or the right things to do. Mariemaya put her arms around her crying mother in an attempt to comfort her but no matter what they tried Ann kept crying. She was completely lost in her feeling of guilt blaming herself for not thinking about the things that could have happened when she was away. She remembered her last conversation with Ariana who blamed her for taking off and how she betrayed the family,but in fact Ariana was blaming her for not staying with her. As tears kept coming Relena and Mariemaya held her in their arms to make her feel better. When Trowa came back in she was still broken-hearted. He took her into his arms and said that everything was going to be alright as long as she was willing to believe that she could make it happen. Somehow she started to calm down while Relena and Mariemaya were watching Trowa who seemed to have found the right words to say. About an hour later Heero came back telling he was able to get the exhumation on the condition that lady Une approved. She signed the approval and Heero took off to the cemetery where Ariana was buried.

Heero returned late in the evening and was met by Relena who had stayed behind to keep an eye on Mariemaya since lady Une was to upset by the things that were revealed today.

"Well how is Ann doing?"Heero asked a bit concerned about her.

"Not to well but she is trying to get herself together again but she is still a wreck. Everything she knew to be true no longer is true,things that were kept hidden suddenly get out,relatives that weren't there suddenly appear out of nowhere. I don't know Heero it feels like when I found out that Zechs Merquise was in fact my brother Milliardo and I was not the daughter of Erik Darlian but the daughter of king Peacecraft of the Sanc kingdom. I somewhat understand her feelings but she is given a bigger blow than we expected."

"I know first I bring her the happy news that her brother is still alive and that I am the one she has been searching for and then I have to tell her that there is a younger family member she never knew about. If I were in her shoes I would be ready to be put into a hospital but she somehow tries to cope with it. I wish I could say that I have good news to tell her but it isn't."

"What do you mean?"

"The body we found in the grave wasn't Ariana but someone who was reported missing since AC192 about two days before Ariana supposedly killed herself."

"Are you saying that Ariana is still alive?"

"I hate say it but yes I think she is still alive."

"Where is she?"

"That is a good question. Even I don't know any more where to start right now. If Ariana is still alive it is only a matter of time before she blows her cover and comes out in the open but if she doesn't we will be searching for a long time."

"Are you going to tell Ann?"

"I don't know yet,I don't want to give her false hope now because we don't know for sure she is still alive."

"Who is alive?" Heero heard lady Une say. He turned around looked at her swollen eyes and started to regret he had not taken Relena up to their room and discussed it there.

"Ann,"he began "We are not sure but we think that Ariana is still alive somewhere. I don't know how to tell you this but I have the feeling she fooled us all. The body we found in her grave was someone else."

"Ariana is not dead?I have seen her body,I have seen her being put into the coffin how can she still be alive."

Heero started to doubt her because she was sure that her sister was dead and buried in front of her. He walked over to her and looked into her eyes. Something in those eyes told him she was telling the truth and Ariana was dead. He started to wonder what other surprises there were left in his family.

"Maybe we have exhumed the wrong body"he concluded.

"Maybe not." Relena started to reason "What if Ariana never existed but was one of the memory implants to fill up the void that was created by the removal of the brother in the family."

"Are you saying that the girl in the coffin was someone who had been playing Ariana for a number of years" Heero asked.

"I have the feeling that whatever has happened to Ann must have been thoroughly planned but in the end it backfired."

"You are saying that everything I know to be true is all a lie?"lady Une asked.

"Maybe" Relena answered.

"You know what"Heero started "tomorrow we go to the nearest neurologist to see how many times someone has messed with her mind."

"So first you want to know if somebody has fried my brains"lady Une sighed.

"If your brain was fried we wouldn't have this conversation."Heero stated.

After that everyone went back to their rooms to rethink everything that had been found out that day.

"Well Doctor,do you think it is possible to find out whether someone has messed with our brains or not" Heero asked the neurologist.

"Mr Yuy I am certain that if someone had done something like a memory wipe or a memory implant on you or ms Une I will find it." the doctor answered.

"Well lets get started then"Heero said. The neurologist put him in a seat, put some kind of a helmet on his head and asked him if he was comfortable. Heero felt considering the circumstances quite comfortable. After a series of tests the neurologist told Heero he could take off the device on his head.

"Well?"Heero asked

"I don't know what has happened to your brain but it has nothing to do with a memory change."

"Then I am reassured."Heero said knowing the good man stumbled on something he better not found out.

"What exactly happened to you mr Yuy because this is not normal,your brain functions are all working at a far higher capacity of a normal human being."

"That is the result of an experiment gone wrong"Heero answered.

"What experiment?"

"That is classified information." lady Une answered.

"Ok,now lets have a look at you"the neurologist said while he moved lady Une to the chair Heero sat in. He put the device on her head and started the tests. After he had finished he looked disturbed.

"What is it?"lady Une asked.

"I don't believe this but it seems that you have had more memory corrections,if you don't mind me saying so,than I have patients at the moment. Have you been part of the mind wipe experiment that took place in the years between AC170 and AC185.Off course you don't know because that was the purpose of it. It was a secret project financed by Romefeller in order to create the perfect soldier. Actually it was nothing more than creating something like those mobile dolls we had in the last year of the war. They wiped the soldiers brain clean from any memory he could possibly have and after that they programmed him to be a merciless killer."

"Can the process be reversed." Heero asked.

"It can be reversed but the you need to get access to someone's subconscious and there we can find the back up from the original personality. Once you got that you can start rebuilding that person but that is a long process and the technology to do that doesn't exist."

"What do you need to perform such a procedure?" lady Une asked.

"First of all a device like this,"the neurologist pointed at the helmet like device he used "and I need a very sophisticated program to get access into the mind of the patient. A program like that doesn't exist because the people working on the project weren't allowed to make such a program. Once I had the opportunity to meet one of the people who worked on the project and he said that this was the worst thing he had ever done in his life. Dr Johansen then disappeared for a long time until he was arrested by Oz for building a Gundam."

"Dr J," Heero said.

"You know him?"

"Yes,I was the pilot of the Gundam he built and I think that program you referred to does exist. I only have to get it. If I give you the program will you perform the mind restoration?"

"Alright but are you sure that program can do what I just told you." the neurologist asked.

"Much more than that" Heero stated.

"What program are you talking about?" Une asked.

"The Zero program. It was originally designed to restore the minds of people whose minds were wiped. Later on they rewrote the software in such a way that it also could be used to improve the performance of mobile suit pilots. They never thought that the original program would interfere with the software improvements and that is why Milliardo and I have higher brain functions than the average human but according to J. it is not going to kill us. The only time the program did his work was when Trowa was using the Zero,it cured his loss of memories. Now it is going to do a lot more for you than it ever did before."

Heero opened his briefcase and pulled out a number of discs. He gave them to the neurologist who looked at them wondering what this program could do.

"Don't think about making copies of this program or I will personally make sure you loose your license to practise." Heero warned him.

"Can he do that"the doctor asked Une

"Yes he can"

Then lady Une put the helmet like device back on her head while Heero instructed the neurologist on how to upload the program in his computer. After a few minutes they were ready to start the procedure.

"Ann,now you have to trust me whatever happens now focus on yourself and Zero will guide you through your fake memories to your real childhood memories. If you don't focus on yourself Zero will be aimlessly searching and you will never find yourself again."

"I will Heero"

She closed her eyes and then she saw the Zero program starting up in her mind. Focussing on her childhood she saw many things which were not the memories she was looking for but al implants until at a certain point Zero stopped digging deeper. She looked at herself being in pain after being raped by her father. The program backed up this memory and began digging again till it reached a new point where she saw herself having a baby but she was very young at the time. The next thing she saw was her father on top of her having the time of his life while she was in pain praying for help. After a few somewhat better memories of herself she came across another painful memory: the death of her mother and sister. Her father had killed them both because they both were to disobedient for his taste. Then she saw herself looking at her friend being raped by her father while she was home from the academy. Two days later she was buried as her sister. The next memory she had was the day she threatened her father that she would kill him. She saw many more memories coming out ,the painful ones as well as the happy ones. From a distance Heero saw every expression on her face and started to wonder what was happening in her mind. He saw tears coming from her eyes and smiles of joy. He wished he could comfort her but he knew that this was her trip with Zero. An hour later Zero had finished and Heero personally removed the program from the neurologist's computer to make sure no trace remained of the Zero program. He looked at lady Une who was recapturing everything and then she looked at Heero and said "I used to hold you in my arms when you were a baby but father wanted you gone. He picked you up one night and brought you away to some place we would never find you. You were the reason why he had our memories wiped out but it didn't end with that. He erased every traumatic experience from our minds so he could keep on doing whatever he wanted with us. The doctor that helped him was only in it for the money but he had wiped my memories the last time in AC192 when he had raped and killed Jennifer and buried her as Ariana. He had kept Ariana alive in Jennifer who had to play Ariana every time I was home from the academy. I didn't recognise her back then as the friend I had in elementary school. The child we are going to visit is my own daughter Annie. I left her there so she didn't have to share the same fate I had and she could be given a chance at a better life. Can you imagine how relieved I was that she would remain out of our father's reach. I told him she didn't survive birth and the people at the orphanage backed me up even though I still don't know why. I got pregnant when I was twelve and six weeks before my thirteenth birthday Annie was born. Sally was right after all, I have been pregnant before the war, long before the war."

Heero's eyes suddenly started to glow as if there was something he was supposed to know. He looked at her and said "I visited you at the orphanage with Dr J. He wanted me to get to know you because you were an important part of my life according to him. I didn't know back then what he meant but now it is falling together. I remember you walking next to me holding your baby in your arms telling me how you someday would get even for the things your father had done to you."

"He died of a heart attack after he had seen you blow up your gundam and yourself. He was screaming that you had come back to kill him and take revenge for everything he had done to your mother. So in fact we did make him pay after all."

"I don't know sister,I have the bad feeling he is still around."

"If he is I will make sure he pays for his crimes the legal way and we have more than enough proof."

"Do you think a guy like him will take his chances in court?No he would rather get into a gunfight then go to trial. Lets pick up the others so we can take a look at Annie."Heero said putting an arm around her shoulders.

When they got back at the hotel Heero's cell rang.

"Heero Yuy, what's up?"

"Chief we have been looking around for the body of Ariana Une but we can't find it on the graveyard. We believe that she could be buried elsewhere but where we don't know."

"Have you tried to contact the pathologist that performed the autopsy on Ariana's remains?"

"Yes but he isn't talking."

"I will contact him myself then "

Heero was given the number of the pathologist and he immediately called him.

"Hello, Dr Braun how can I help you."

"This is Heero Yuy, the first officer of the preventers. I am looking into an old case that concerns my family. It seems like the body of Ariana Une has disappeared somewhere between your table and her grave. I am very interested to know where she is because we exhumed a body from her grave but it wasn't her's. So do you have any information as to what happened back then or do I have to force it out of you and your staff."

"Mr Yuy, I would gladly assist you but I will only talk to close relatives of the Une family about this. You are not related to the family last time I checked the preventer archives."

"You haven't read the updated files yet I notice. Since a few days ago we have established that I am lady Une's lost brother and now we need a few answers from you."

"You can say whatever you want Mr Yuy but don't you think I would believe this for a second. The only person I will talk to is lady Une and no one else."

"Fine by me," Heero said handing over his phone to Ann.

"This is lady Une speaking, why don't you talk to Heero? I have a lot already on my mind to worry about so give him the information he needs so he can start looking for Ariana or whatever remains of her."

"Is he really your brother lady Une"

"Yes he is and now tell him what he wants to know." She handed over the phone and looked over to Trowa and Mariemaya who were sitting together playing a game. She heard Heero's surprised remarks and some swearing as well but she didn't mind at all. She was organising her thoughts and wondered about what she was going to say to her daughter she had not seen in eleven years. She felt like she had abandoned her own flesh and blood while she was raising someone else's kid. How was she going to explain this all? What would her daughter say to her? Why would her daughter still want to see her? She left her behind so she should be safe and out of her father's reach but still she felt guilty about what she had done. No mother she knew had ever abandoned their child but she did and no matter how one twists and turns it she had no right to leave her alone for so long. She was her mother and she had to take care of her no one else. She started to think about the times she held Annie in her arms promising she would let no one harm her, the many hours she spent sitting next to her baby's cradle making plans for the future, the sleepless nights because her baby needed to be fed and changed. A smile came to lady Une's face when she thought about those days, those were the happiest three months of her life back then. The only happiness she had known throughout her life in those days until her father found her there and took her home to abuse her again.

"Mum is everything alright?" Mariemaya asked looking at her

"Yes sweety, I was just thinking about Annie and how lonely she must have been without me. I now wished I had taken her with me when my father had found me again but on the other hand I couldn't let her be part of the hell I was living in. I comfort myself with the thought that she at least had a protected childhood. Maybe the two of you can get along or I am going to have very hard time working things out."

"Don't worry mum,I will do my best to help you out in any way I can even if it means to shut my big mouth from time to time." Mariemaya laughed while she picked up her purse.

Heero walked over to them with a sad face on which Relena asked him what was wrong.

"Well everybody, Ariana wasn't found in the graveyard so my people started to widen the search to discover that she wasn't dead. After a long talk with Dr Braun I found out he had her moved from his morgue to the hospital after he discovered she was not dead but in a deep coma. She came out of it three weeks later remembering every thing that had happened before she ended up in the hospital. Her father had strangled her but he hadn't finished the job completely. Now Dr Braun was facing a choice: send her back or hide her somewhere else. In the end he sent her to a friend he had on L4 to pass as his lost daughter. As far as he knows she is still living there so I asked Quattre to look into that."

"So this means Ari is still alive but never took the time to contact either one of us." lady Une wondered.

Heero just nodded and left the room gesturing everyone to follow him. He wanted to go to Cologne now because at the moment there was nothing he could do for Ariana. He hoped that Quattre would be able to come up with something that could help them all.

In the meanwhile Quattre was thinking about how he was supposed to find Ariana without some kind of a description. He looked at his computer and looked into the file Heero sent him. The picture included in the file seemed a bit familiar but maybe it was the fact there was a family resemblance between the girl in the picture and the woman he knew as Ann Une. He called his sister Irea hoping she would be giving him a clue.

"Irea here,"

"Hello Irea, it's me. I have something to ask you, have you ever heard of a Ariana Une who fled to L4 to escape her family?"

Irea looked at Quattre with a very pale face gasping for air. She then sat down at her desk and turned her face away from the screen in order to hide her tears. Quattre, who had never seen his big sister like that wondered what he was going to find out this time.

"Irea, do you know something I am supposed to know?"

"Ariana... I first met her here at home where father took care off her in order to cure her from all the wounds she had. He couldn't keep her here because she was wanted by Romefeller. He sent her to a friend Mohamed Ahmadi who lived at a mining colony in those days. Mohamed wanted to take her in on one condition that when the girl comes of age and her father wouldn't claim her she had to marry you. As things stand at the moment she is of age for a year now and so will you be in one year so that means you have to marry her or you will loose control over the Winner corporation. Father called it his pact with the devil. He would have promised him every daughter he had to help her and keep you out of this as well because he promised our mother he would never arrange a marriage for any of his children. Later it became clear to him that he was only interested in the corporation and not in you or any of us even though Mohamed has several sons and no daughter. The problem right now is that Sebastian Une's body is missing so there is no proof that he is dead or alive. This means for you that you still aren't of the hook."

"Maybe Heero as man of the Une family can make him change his mind. Maybe I can throw in something to sweeten the deal. I believe that our sister Yasmina has a crush on one of his sons and I have the impression that the feelings are mutual so if they would come to me to ask permission to marry I will throw in an exclusive dowry to make sure Mohamed would back down."

"Quattre he wants you as his son in law so he can finally get into the higher circles of our society. He is nothing more than a power hungry man who wants to take over everything he can get his hands on. Last I heard he also had done some business with the Barton foundation somewhere around the period that you took your gundam to earth to fight Oz and Romefeller. The legal papers that were drafted are binding so no matter what we do he will get what he wants unless you can cough up the body of Sebastian Une." Irea said with a sad tone in her voice while she thought of a way to get out of this mess. Suddenly it hit her.

"Quattre I believe there is a clause in the contract that says that if you are to marry another woman before her she has the right to break the contract herself without any compensation to the Ahmadi family because she isn't an Ahmadi. So all you have to do is marry someone within a year. How about Dorothy?" Irea asked oblivious about the situation between Dorothy and Quattre since he hadn't told any of his sisters yet.

Quattre wanted to tell them all as soon as he got home in two days but it seemed better under the circumstances to tell Irea now.

"Hum, well, talking about marrying Dorothy within the year, I was thinking more down the lines of marrying her within a month. You see we both have been very stupid about six weeks ago and now we are paying the bill."

"I hope you're not trying to tell me that you and Dorothy had unprotected sex back then."

"Ergh, yes we had"

"You knocked her up didn't you"

"Yes I did"

"Quattre Rebarbra Winner!"

"Irea I can explain all this"

"You couldn't pull this one of at a better time."

"You are not mad at me"

"Well yes and no when were you going to tell me?"

"As soon as I got home so everyone would get the news of us getting married and also the reason why."

Irea started to laugh and congratulated him and she asked him if she could talk to her future sister in law. Dorothy was quite surprised by Irea's request to speak to her but went over to talk with her so she got to know her a bit better by the time they got together.

In Cologne a group of young people reached their destination. They looked at the orphanage Heero and lady Une visited years ago. Tears were coming down Ann's cheeks again as she looked at the building remembering the time she spent there as a twelve year old girl. Three months of peace that were necessary to organise her life again so she would be able to fight again for her right to exist. They all went in to finally meet Annie and see what has become of her. Once inside they walked over to the reception looking around the entire place.

"Good afternoon, can I help you," the receptionist asked

"Yes I am here to find my daughter Annie again," lady Une said.

"May I ask for your name?"

"My name is Ann Une. You know I stayed here for a while until my father picked me up here to take me back to the hell hole I fled from. While I was here I gave birth to Annie but somehow someone altered my memories and for a long time I didn't know I had a daughter in this world. Now I want to see her again if that is possible."

The woman behind the desk looked at lady Une and picked up the phone. She called her supervisor to meet her at the reception. A few minutes later a woman of approximately forty years came up to the group of people and the moment she saw lady Une she looked very surprised and happy.

"Ann, is it really you? How are you? Where have you been all these years and who are all these people right here with you?" she asked.

Lady Une looked at her and recognised the woman and again tears started roll down her cheeks while she spoke "I'm fine, for the past eleven years I have done a lot of things I shouldn't have done. As for the people with me I'm sure you recognise vice foreign minister Darlian, my adopted daughter Mariemaya Kushrenada and the men with us are Trowa Barton and Heero Yuy. Guys this is the woman that helped me deliver Annie, nurse Elaine. How are you?"

"I'm doing fine honey, I just can't believe that after all these years you finally came back to pick up Annie. I hope that you are ready to meet her because she has been waiting for a long time to see you again. For years we have told her your story, the story of a young girl, to young to be a mother, who gave up her daughter with the promise to return for her the moment she got her life back. We told her that it would take a long time for you to find yourself again since a lot had happened to you before you even gave birth to her and what happened with you after her birth we couldn't know. She has always said that no matter what you would come for her and then she would be there for you. Now she will finally see you for real and not a picture or a T.V. show. How happy she will be."

The woman turned to a nurse and sent her of to find Annie while she lead the visitors to a room where they would all wait for Annie. After a while a young girl entered the room looking at Elaine who just nodded and went out so the girl could get some time with the people who had come to see her. Everyone looked in amazement at the girl, everyone could have sworn apart from the blue eyes and the difference in age that she was a twin sister from Ann. She resembled her mother so much that Mariemaya's eyes seemed to pop out of her eyes. The girl looked at the company for a while and a smile started to spread across her face.

"Mummy,daddy finally you are here, I knew you would come to take me home."

"Daddy? What are you talking about?" lady Une asked.

"Well I have a picture from you both carrying me around in the orphanage. Here it is" with that she showed a picture in which Heero recognised himself and lady Une and started to laugh.

"I see where this is coming from. No, I am not your father I'm your uncle."

"What? Then this means that you are a brother of my mother and I thought you were my father."

"We forgot to write our names on the back of the picture" Heero said.

"How old were you two back then" Annie asked.

"I was thirteen at the time and Heero was nine, we both met when he came over here to visit me and you although I don't know why exactly." Ann said looking at Heero

"Dr J thought it would be best that I knew you. He said to me that if some how we meet again that I had to remember this day because we were family. He never told me how closely related we were. He also made me swear before I took the Wing to Earth not to kill you. I wondered why I should have to kill you because I only remembered you as the girl with the baby and that girl had grown up to be a mother. Not long after I arrived on Earth I started to understand why, we were fighting each other in order to establish peace. I kept my promise even though I had a great opportunity to take you out on Barge."

"Instead you decided to take out the Mercury and the Vayate." Une replied.

Heero just nodded and Annie looked at them with big eyes. For a while everybody just sat there looking at eachother.

"Who are you exactly?" Annie asked pointing at Trowa.

"I am Trowa Barton, I am your mother's boyfriend. During the war we fell in love with each other but we both walked into a battle and we both almost died. I was blown away by my best friend who had lost his mind after his father was killed and your mother was shot by a merciless engineer who only wanted to take over her job. In the end we lost every memory we had about our relation. After a while I remembered what happened but it took your mother four years to get her memories back."

"Did you remember me again to after all this time" Annie said turning to Ann.

"No, my...our father had altered my memories so I would never remember that I had been pregnant. He erased every memory I had about this place, about you, about Heero and even about the fact that I told him you were born dead. I told him because I wanted to spare you from the fate that would have awaited you if I took you with me. My childhood was not exactly happy."

It seemed like suddenly the girl was understanding where this was going. She looked at her mother and saw the tears in her eyes.

"My grandfather is also my father, isn't it" the little girl reasoned

"Yes, he was but as far as we know he is dead. I don't want you to worry about that any more and from now on I will be there for you. I came here to take you home where you belong."

The girl looked at Mariemaya remembering her as the girl that once tried to take over the world. Annie walked over to her and concluded that her mother had taken this girl in.

"Well, then you will be my stepsister. I hope you haven't grown to used of having mum to yourself all the time." Annie stated.

"Actually I have asked her in the past four years when she was going to look for another man in her life. I hoped that she would find a suitable husband and maybe have some children so I had brothers or sisters or even both. I love to have you as a sister." Mariemaya replied.

"Great, since we are the same age I think we can have a lot of fun but I think we can't swap clothes." Annie said looking at the somewhat taller Mariamaya. She wondered how tall Mariemaya would get when she grew up since she was nearly as tall as her mother.

"Mum, when can I leave here?" Annie asked her mother.

"I need to get the paperwork done first and I think it is going to take a while but maybe I can take with me to the place we are staying now. We are taking a vacation here so if you want to come along you may." lady Une proposed. She knew that she would not be allowed to take her daughter home right away but the procedure wouldn't take as long as when she wanted to adopt Mariemaya. This time she only had to prove she was Annie's mother and then after a few weeks she could take her daughter home. She left the room telling the others to wait for her while she arranged something so she could take Annie with her for a week. In the meanwhile Annie got better acquainted with the people her mother had brought with her. Lady Une walked to the reception to ask who she should talk to in order to take Annie with her for a while. The receptionist told her to arrange that with the chief of the orphanage and showed Ann the way to her office. When Ann got to the office she saw Elaine sitting behind the desk.

"Hello Ann, how did everything go with Annie?" the woman asked.

"Everything went better than I expected and I want to take her with me for a few days if that is possible."

"Off course it is, she your girl and she should be with her mother but before you can take her home permanently you have to fill out the necessary paperwork and wait for the approval of the childcare services. I doubt it would be a problem since there is to much evidence in favour of you. Even I will vouch for you. I saw the tears of happiness when you gave life to Annie, I was there to help you take care of Annie, I witnessed you waking up to feed Annie in the middle of the night, I saw you refuse others to help you with the baby while you were still to young to do this completely on your own. You were a special case and I have seen many teen mothers all older than you were who always accepted the help, girls who didn't want to carry the full responsibility on their own but you wanted to carry that load all alone. I could only admire you for it, a thirteen year old girl taking care of her baby as an adult would was something I had never seen before and never saw that again. You were far to mature for your age." Elaine said with tears in her eyes thinking about the times she offered to help Ann but she didn't trust anyone at the time to help her with the baby.

"I didn't trust anyone with my baby at the time because I had been lied to, I had been abused and everyone who was dear to me was either dead or gone. There was only dad and his henchmen left so to be sure that Annie was born in a safe environment I fled my home, a hell hole to be more precise. I have never told you exactly who Annie's father was but I guess you already know. I even hoped that I wouldn't survive the birth of Annie but I did so now it was my responsibility to take care of her. She was my baby and no one was going to take her away from me. I gave her life and delivered her into a peaceful environment where I hoped to stay until I was old enough to get a job, earn enough money to get myself an apartment so we could live together away from the hell hole I ran from. Unfortunately my father found out where I was and he came to get me here so I went home with him and lied to him about Annie. He believed me but I felt as I had betrayed Annie when I left her here. I entrusted you with her because you were the only one who had seen what was wrong with me at the time. You never pushed yourself on me you just let me do things myself but you were always there just in case something might go wrong. Once it almost did but you were there then and helped me because I was getting to tired to take care of Annie. That was the reason that I made you promise the day I left that as long as Annie was a baby only you had to take care of her and look now Annie has grown into a beautiful girl. I don't know what I can do to thank you."

"You can thank me by taking good care of her although I think that won't be a problem. You and Annie will stay with me forever even though you weren't here to see her grow up I felt your presence. I hope you will come here from time to time so we can share stories about Annie and Mariemaya. You think they would get along?"

"I honestly don't know but time will tell. I would be surprised if they wouldn't argue with each other as long as they are at home. If they have their fights from time to time I will be happy, I remember the times Ariana and I had our fights but that comes with the territory and it is always an opportunity to learn something about each other."

"That is the ever realistic Ann talking. Now I take it you want to take her to the place you are staying for the duration of your holiday. Just give me the address of the hotel you are staying so I can check up on you all. It is something I have to do"

"I understand and I wish you will call" lady Une said while she started to write down the address on a piece of paper. After that both women walked out of the office to bring the news to Annie. When they entered the room where Une left the others Annie was having a good time with Mariemaya and Trowa while Relena watched from a distance at them and Heero was on the phone again. Lady Une wondered what that would be about but for now Annie came first.

"Annie, how about this? You start packing some clothes and we all go back to the hotel we are staying." Ann asked her daughter.

"Are you sure?" Annie asked looking at Elaine who smiled and nodded. The girl grabbed Mariemaya by the arm and asked her to help packing

"Mum, how long will I be staying with you before I have to get back here." Annie asked to be sure she wouldn't pack to much.

"Only for a week because I'm not allowed to keep you longer than that until the childcare services will allow me to take you home." Ann answered.

"OK, I'll be back in a minute. Come on May I can sure use your help" Annie said dragging Mariemaya along. The rest looked amused at the two girls leaving the place. Trowa pointed out that Annie was a wild one compared to Mariemaya who was more the reserved type like her father. Ann said that she used to be a wild one too when she was young but became more at ease with age. Now she had become a reserved woman as well but she hoped that Annie would remain a wild one a bit longer than she did. Then she looked over at Heero who finished his phone call and looked at her with a frustrated face. She asked what was going on but he said he rather wouldn't want to talk about it right away since there were a lot of uncertainties about what was told to him so he had to check a few things out himself before he would tell what the call was all about. He didn't want to burden her with what he had heard over the phone because now she was happy again for the first time in two days so he didn't want to ruin it. Relena had an idea what was going on and she knew Heero would tell her when the time was right.

In the meanwhile Annie and Mariemaya entered Annie's room which she shared with another girl. That girl looked at Mariemaya and wondered who she was.

"Hey Annie who is that?" the girl asked.

"That is Mariemaya Kushrenada, my stepsister and this is my room mate Jody" Annie introduced the girls to each other

"You are the girl that wanted to take over the world, you don't look so strong." Jody started

"Well I got beaten by the gundams even though I had a strong army at my disposal but in the end it was better that I lost because the girl I was was brainwashed by her grandfather to do the things I have done. Now I am a happy girl who embraces the world as it is now."

"That's what all losers say, just like Annie" Jody said.

"Jody shut up" Annie stepped in.

"What are you going to do, shorty" Jody challenged Annie.

"Keep the two of you apart. I certainly don't want the two of you fighting over something that happened in the past. It is not her fault that your parents died in the war six years ago."

"No but her father is as well as that bitch you call your mother." Jody yelled at them.

"I can understand you frustration and you want to blame everyone who had some involvement in the war but the facts remain as they are and no matter what you do your parents still will be gone. I know how you feel. The gundam pilot that killed my father is now a friend of mine and at first I blamed him too but he was fighting a war and my father was his enemy at the time. That is how it goes in a war, it's either him or me and there is no road between. People die in a war whether we like it or not. If they didn't die in the battlefield they died as a result of a misfire or wrong conduct on the battlefield. Wars don't distinct the innocent from the warriors. Everyone to near to a battlefield dies." Mariemaya philosophised. Jody looked at her in disbelief but found there was some truth in Mariemaya's philosophy. She pushed Annie aside and walked out of the room. Annie sighed in relief that nothing happened.

"Why are you so relieved." Mariemaya asked.

"She has quite a left hook and I was afraid that the two of you would end up fighting. I've learned to shut up in time especially when somebody dares to talk about mum. She hates mum and your dad . Mostly she hates the gundam pilots for not killing our mother." Annie said.

"I see. Honestly I feel like I could have taken her if she felt the need to fight me but I'd rather not fight. Well let's pack." Mariemaya replied walking over to the wardrobe with Annie's name on it. She opened it and looked a bit surprised once she saw the contents of the wardrobe.

"Is that all the clothes you have?" Mariemaya asked.

"Yes is there something wrong with them?" Annie wondered.

"Well all these clothes look like the clothes I wear to play and nothing to wear to a party or when you go out for dinner." Mariemaya told her.

"Is that necessary?" Annie asked

"In our circles it is kind of obliged. You don't need to worry because tomorrow I will take you out shopping for the necessary additions to your wardrobe. Let's see ...um we pack this and this,..." Mariemaya choose a number of trousers and matching shirts while Annie selected her underwear and socks. They took a suitcase and put all the clothes in it and they were ready to take off. They left the room and went on their way to find their mother but when they were near the corridor where they were supposed to be Jody and a few other girls walked up to them.

"Leaving already, you wimps." Jody started

"Yes we are" Mariemaya simply answered.

"No you are not, at least until I say so. Now what do we want from you? I want you and Annie to lick my boots or I will make you." Jody ordered. Mariemaya sized up the competition and then she looked at Annie. Annie was about to get ready to go on her knees to do as Jody ordered.

"No Annie, don't. I will learn you to stand up to people like her. She is nothing than a bully with a weak hart. She is not as tough as she looks." Mariemaya told Annie while she looked at Jody who was surprised by Mariemaya's reaction.

"I 'm not weak, I am stronger than you give me credit." Jody said

"I don't underestimate your physical strength, mentally I know which buttons to push in order to gain the upper hand. I don't want to fight you but I will if you force me to" Mariemaya said

"I will break you with one hand tied behind my back." Jody answered her challenge.

"Who is underestimating who right now" Mariemaya replied stepping closer to Jody. Jody was about ten centimetres taller than Mariemaya and thirteen years old but Mariemaya seemed to look taller then she really was. Jody started to laugh stepped back and started to talk again.

"To beat you up would be a waist of time and effort so you better start licking my boots or else."

"Or else what, I think you are afraid of me. Come on you and me right here right now. Give me your best punch" Mariemaya dared her holding her hands behind her back. Jody lashed out but Mariemaya ducked and smiled. Again and again Jody tried to hit her but Mariemaya evaded punch after punch with ease.

"When are you going to stand still" Jody growled.

"And let you bruise my pretty face, no way" Mariemaya teased hoping that at some point Jody would give up. A bit later Elaine and lady Une, who were worried about the two girls, walked in the hallway seeing what was happening. Elaine wanted to raise her voice in order to stop them but Ann stopped her because she knew that Mariemaya was teaching the girl that tried to hit her a lesson. About ten minutes later Jody gave up because she was out of breath. Mariemaya smiled and started to talk.

"I wore you out and attacking you now would be fatal but I am not going to. I feel sorry for you that you can't be able to forgive and forget. I 'm not worthy to punch you out and I never will be but remember this, I will be watching you for as long as Annie will stay here." Jody suddenly punched her in the face on which Mariemaya reacted with a knock out punch. For a moment she looked at the other girls who had been watching the fight and then she looked at Annie who held her hands to her face in fear. Then Elaine stepped in picking up Jody who was unconscious on the floor. Mariemaya apologised for what had happened but Elaine had witnessed the whole thing and told her that she was the first one to beat Jody in her own game but still Mariemaya felt as if it was her fault. Elaine told her that Jody had beaten up other kids as well so in a way she deserved it that Mariemaya knocked her out even though it is not right. Lady Une looked at Mariemaya's face and noticed that she had a black eye. Mariemaya asked for some ice and walked towards Jody while she held out her hand to make up with the girl for what she did. Jody looked at her and slapped her hand away from her. At this point Elaine walked up to them and started to speak.

"Jody, if you keep pushing people around the way you have been doing since the day you came here you will be knocked out more than once. Mariemaya feels bad about the fact that she fought you. She promised herself that she would not raise her fists again to hurt somebody a long time ago but today you forced her to break that promise. Can you understand how she feels? Do you know what it feels like to be looked at all the time because of one large mistake you made as a child? I surely don't want to be in her shoes. One day you will end up fighting everyone who knows somebody who fought during the war."

"No, She will grow up to be another Zechs Merquise. He lost his parents during a war too but he swore revenge on the people responsible for the death of his parents. He became a soldier and in the end a special within the Oz organisation. After a while he took a bloody revenge on the people who destroyed his home and killed his parents. Now he hides in the shadows because he feels as if he had betrayed his parents and what they stood for. I should know because we fought side by side at one time. He should have turned away from the battlefield and let his gentle nature take over so he could bring peace to the world. He didn't and that destroyed him." lady Une said looking at Jody. The girl started to cry because now she realised what everyone around her tried to tell her. Then she stood up and walked away while Annie and Mariemaya stared at her leaving. Lady Une urged her daughters to follow her so they could leave the orphanage to go back to Bernkastel.


	3. Lost sister

The next morning Ann woke up in the arms of Trowa who was already awake. She kissed him and got out of the bed to take a look at her girls. She opened the door to their room and saw Annie sleeping in the arms of Mariemaya as if the taller girl was protecting her from whatever was harming her. After she closed the door she walked to over to Trowa and got into the bed.

"Mariemaya looks and acts like her father more and more lately and I start to wonder what she might end up doing once she grows up." lady Une said

"I think she will become a great woman just like her father used to be."

"I only hope she won't start wars just like her father did"

"She will fight her battles differently but she will be as good at it as her father was."

"Sometimes even you amaze me Trowa, I don't know why but you seem to be able to reassure me that nothing really bad will happen to her as long as we teach her the right things to hold on to."

"That is something I would love to do the rest of my life. I hope that some day we can say that we raised them well."

"What about having a few children ourselves?" Ann asked

"I would love to have some children with you but we have a responsibility towards Annie and Mariemaya too"

"They will always be our children too." lady Une responded while she laid her head down at Trowa's chest. He looked down at her and kissed her forehead while he held her tightly. He started to wonder how she was going to deal with everything while he was still touring around as a singer and as a circus artist. He looked at her face which betrayed a lot of worries too. He decided it was time to have a talk about the way their nearby future would turn out to be.

"Ann, what would you say if I told you that as soon as my tour as a singer is over that I will move in with you to help you out in the household?" he started and while he looked down at her she had a surprised look in her eyes, "It will make things easier on you and by the way you are looking at me now I can see that you weren't exactly expecting this from me."

"Well we just don't know each other that well to just decide to move in with each other over night even though I could use the help at home because my housekeeper isn't the youngest any more and I think that Annie and Mariemaya will be to much of a hand full for her to handle. With me working over ten hours a day and even at home I don't get any rest because by the least trouble the president is all over my case, that is why I hired Heero so he could take my place when I happened to be unavailable to help and in the past six months he did an excellent job at it but still I need to cut back in hours so the children get the attention they need from me. With you helping me would make it easier but you also can't quit your job like that. What would the people at the circus say about that, especially Catherine will be disappointed in you."

"I know but I can't just let you drown in your work and raise two children at the same time so let me help at home as well as at the job. You know I can be useful to the Preventers and I will be at home for you to help you to raise those lovely ladies and some day even our own children."

Lady Une's eyes started to twinkle at the thought of having a few more children of her own and she smiled at Trowa and said, "Do you really want children of me?"

"Yes why not, a few mini you's bossing other kids around while a few mini Trowa's are giving their parents grey hair with all the stunts they pull off on a daily bases. What do you say?"

"Hmm, one mini me and one mini you will do to give me grey hair in due time and you might be white by the time they have grown up." Ann laughed while her hand slowly moved down south. Trowa kissed her tenderly and asked her if she needed some more practise at making babies and she nodded with a naughty smile on her face. Soon the two of them were caught in a very noisy game which woke up the girls in the next room.

"It seems like mum and Trowa are at it again" Mariemaya sighed

"At what again" Annie asked her curiously while she looked at Mariemaya who looked at her and wondered how to have this talk about the birds and the bees with her sister. She decided to go about it carefully so Annie wouldn't be to upset about what her mother was doing with her lover. Half an hour later the girl finished her story and Annie looked at her with a smile.

"So mum is having sex with Trowa and this may some day end up with having another baby in the family." she reasoned.

"Yes that is how nature works but don't be in a hurry to try it out yourself." Mariemaya warned.

"I won't, mum got me when she was nearly thirteen so I am not in a hurry to try that out myself. What about you?"

"When I am old enough and I have found the right guy I will try it but only then."

"So will I"

The two girls laughed at that note and went over to the door to listen if their mother and Trowa had finished their love game and it was safe to walk in. After they heard that the two of them were actually talking to each other the girls decided it was safe to knock on the door and walk in there. As soon as Lady Une saw her girls walk in she invited them over to the bed where the four of them were having a conversation about what they were going to do that day.

On the way to the L4 colony Quattre contacted Heero who was on his way to L4 as well but he had to take a commercial flight where as Quattre had the luxury to fly his own shuttle.

"Heero I have a lead on Ariana but there is a lot more to the story than even I expected. I don't understand why she was supposed to be dead anyway so what was it that was wanted from her?"

"I don't know either but maybe Dorothy can help us with that and since she happens to be your fiancé you could ask for her help."

"I didn't have to ask her since she remembered something that might have some connection to the Une family. Her grandfather had some dealings with Count Une but what was exactly going on no one knows. I think it had something to do with getting rid of my family in order to gain control over the L4 colonies."

At that point Dorothy interrupted the two men "Hey guys, I just found out that my grandfather wanted Count Une to get his daughter Ariana to marry someone of influence at the L4 colonies since they would become the most difficult to control if it would come to a take over by Oz. He made sure that Ariana ended up at the right place to be found alive and rescued by the right people. In the end she would end up in the hands of the Winner family and become a target. Quattre's father took her in but he knew he couldn't keep her so he hid her with someone he thought he could trust. In the end he was betrayed by his friend who wanted something in return, the girl would have to marry Quattre as soon as Quattre was of age. There was a contract drafted between Mr Winner and Mr Ahmadi who suddenly saw a great opportunity to seize control over the Winner company."

"According to that contract I have to marry Ariana unless certain conditions weren't met but I have to read that contract again so I know if there is something I can use to bargain with. If there is something useful in there I will definitely use it to my advantage and I hope there is something in there I can use. As far as I know there are a few things I might throw at him but I fear that won't be enough to help us out at the moment but maybe I can pull something off that might help us."

"I hope you can because I won't be able to. If this was already planned by Romefeller then we are in for quite a legal argument and I am no legal expert." Heero replied finishing his call.

Dorothy looked at Quattre who seemed to be lost in his thoughts. She wondered what was on his mind right now. She was wondering how he would handle things from the moment he had read the contract.

"Quattre what is on your mind right now." she asked

"Honestly, I 'm thinking about the fact that I might end up in a double marriage if I can't find something I can use to get out of this marriage with Ariana. I never dreamed of marrying more than one woman like my father. I only wanted one wife and the only one I want to marry right now is you. If I have to marry Ariana too I wouldn't know what to do, I 'm not like my father who was able to keep all of his wives happy."Quattre answered.

"I know you have only eyes for me but if you are forced to marry Ariana I won't get angry at you for something that had already been arranged before you even knew about it. Even I was almost married off to someone but the poor guy died before I even met him, lucky me I guess."

"Well I was worried about you getting angry at me but even more about how I was going to make it work out between all of us. You are going to be the lady of the house no matter what everyone else wants from me. You are already carrying my child which gives you the right to be my one and only love and if you have to share me with another woman you still will be my number one."

"Quattre no matter how this thing turns out remember I will still love you as much as I do now. At least I know I will get a little competition in the house." she said wiggling her eyebrows. Quattre started to laugh while his fantasy ran wild.

Heero decided to call Relena after he arrived at L4 because he missed her presence in this particular mission he was on now. This mission called for a clear headed diplomat and not a hot headed preventer. He was going to meet with the Ahmadi family first so he could see how Ariana was doing and how she was doing but a few calming words were needed first before he went on his way.

"Hello you are talking with Relena Darlian," He heard her voice at the other end.

"Hello it 's me honey," Heero started "I just arrived on L4 and I needed to hear your voice again before I go off to meet the Ahmadi's. I miss you here beside me but I have to do this on my own because Ariana is my sister. How is everybody back home doing?"

"Well after Trowa left to continue his tour Ann cried for a while but she turned her attention to her girls. Now we are all walking around in the town shopping for Annie. You should see how the girl was amazed by the dresses Ann showed her to fit. She asked her mother how rich they actually were but Ann didn't answer that question. Mariemaya has been looking around for fitting jewellery which she paid out of her own pocket. Now we are looking for some shoes for the next lady Une."

"I 'm glad to hear you 're all having a great time in Bernkastel. Well I have to go because I 'm reaching my destination. It was good to hear from you again."

"It was nice of you to call, goodbye."

"See you soon" Heero ended the call. He looked at the Ahmadi manor in front of him while he wondered about the things he could expect over there. He wanted to see Ariana and he really wished she was well. Even though he never met her he felt as if she was his responsibility. After he announced his arrival at the door he was led in by a servant who brought him to a man who looked well in his fifty's. He studied Heero for a while wondering why a high ranked preventer would want to visit him. The man felt there was something familiar about this young man but he didn't know what it exactly was. Heero studied the man in front of him and had the feeling that his usual way of threatening his opponent wouldn't work out. This time he had to work out a different strategy to obtain what he had come for. He smiled for a while so the older man wouldn't suspect him to be a wolf in sheep's clothes.

"Good afternoon Mr Yuy, what brings you to my humble home?" Mohamed asked.

"My business concerns a young woman who is living in your home. The woman with the name Ariana Une, daughter of Count Une. I represent her last relatives on their behalf." Heero said.

"Which relatives?"

"Her sister Ann Marie Une and her cousin Annie Ariana Une."

"Why are you asked to represent the Une family?"

"I am their half brother Jonah who had supposedly vanished without a trace."

"You are Jonah Une, the bastard child that Sebastian Une wanted dead."

"Yes, I am that boy"

"What do you want with Ariana?"

"I came here to reunite her with her family as it should be but first I want to be sure she is well and I trust that everything is well with her otherwise the old Mr Winner wouldn't have sent her to you to take care of her."

"Of course you can see her but first I want to see some papers that prove that you are who you claim to be."

Heero had expected this so he put his briefcase on the desk and pulled out the necessary papers to prove to Mr Ahmadi who he was. The man studied the papers carefully to be sure he didn't overlook any detail and in the end he looked up at Heero with a satisfied smile. Heero knew he gained the old man's trust enough to at least get a look at his sister.

"Why doesn't lady Une herself come over to see her sister?"

"At the moment she has other businesses to attend to so I offered to help her out on this matter. I will inform her on everything she needs to know before she comes out here to take her sister home."

"She can't take her home, you see Mr Winner and I had an agreement with each other."

"What kind of agreement?" Heero asked knowing too well what Mohamed was talking about.

"Well this may come as a surprise to you but Ariana has been arranged to marry Mr Winner's son Quattre and there is a contract stating that."

"As far as I know local law you can't arrange a wedding between someone who moved in from outside the colony unless you have a legal document that states that you can act on her parents behalf."

"I have such a document and the moment Sebastian Une signed it he gave up all his rights as a father and now she is legally my daughter so I can arrange a wedding between her and Quattre Rebarbra Winner."

"I'd like to see the document"

"But off course." Mohamed went to his filing cabinet opened it and pulled out the document. Heero studied the document for a while and found out this document was already drafted before she was actually even send to Mr Winner. Mohamed was in this game long before anyone suspected it on L4. Heero faced a tough decision, fight the document and loosing all together or acknowledge it as legal and ask for concessions for him and Ann.

"I see the document was drafted long before she even came to your family. I wonder why that is"

The old man knew what Heero was playing at so he decided that he would be better to come clean.

"This is something I am not really proud of but I saw an opportunity to get into the higher circles of our society and I grabbed it. I was told by a man who called himself Duke Dermail that he had to hide a young girl who would end up dead some day if he would not intervene then. I said I would love to help him if he would give me something in return. He knew exactly what I wanted and he promised he would help me with it and so the plan was formed to convince Count Une to sign over his parental rights to me in return Duke Dermail wouldn't turn him over to the proper authorities. After that Sebastian had to turn her over to me but he saw that differently so he tried to strangle her and he failed at it but Dr Braun who was at the time a good friend of the Winners turned her over to them so Duke Dermail aired the rumour of her being wanted by Romefeller. Mr Winner came to me because I was always a trusted friend of the family but I seized the opportunity to get what I wanted after all an arrangement that was beneficial for all sides involved. I intend to hold on to the contract that was drafted between Mr Winner and me no matter what. I have earned my place in the high society here."

"Ann won't be to happy about it and as for Mr Winner I feel sorry for him"

"What do you mean?"

"Well he finally found the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with and now suddenly he has to know that he was supposed to marry someone else instead."

"It seems like he wants to marry someone before he is of age so I have to remind him before he does something stupid and thus destroying his family's future."

"What are you talking about?"

"That my dear boy is none of your concern."

"Well then can I at least see my sister before you have her married of to Mr Winner."

"Alright, you can see her now but just for half an hour."

After that Mohamed summoned a servant to get Ariana and bring her to them. He told Heero to wait for her there while he was going to talk to some people about the latest developments at the Winners. Heero knew he had shaken up things a little but it was worth it. Now he was given some time alone with his sister. A few minutes later a young woman followed by Mohamed walked in. Her face was covered by a veil but her eyes were the same as her mother's and her sister's.

"You can take off your veil my child" Mohamed said to her. She took off her veil and Heero was surprised how much Ariana and Ann resembled each other.

"My name is Heero Yuy and I am here to see you and bring you greetings from your sister Ann. You may not remember me but I am in fact your half brother." Heero started looking at her startled face. "I am very happy to see you sound and well" he continued

"I will give the two of you some time to catch up on things" Mohamed interrupted and then he left the room.

"Are you really my brother Jonah?" Ariana asked

"According to these papers and documents I am" Heero answered her showing the paperwork he brought with him. She looked at it and then looked him in the eyes and started to cry.

"Is something wrong?" Heero asked

"It has been so long that I heard something from Ann and you that I almost gave up hope on seeing any of you back. Especially you were the last one I was hoping to see. Father had removed you from us so he wouldn't have to look at you any more. He told mother that you were a mistake to begin with and that she had better accepted the fact that she had two daughters already. Mother looked at it differently because she wanted a son so he wouldn't come down on us any more the way he did at the time."

"You seem to remember what was going on in the past, Ann didn't"

"At first when I came here I didn't either. Actually I had nightmares about my past but the only thing I remembered clearly was our father strangling me because I was to weak according to him. Ann was his favourite because she somehow dealt with all the things he did to her. I remember the beatings, the wounds she had and the many times she had been raped." At that point she started to cry. Heero walked over to her and held her in his arms. She looked up again and continued her story. "I didn't have the guts to help her and to get him to stop what he was doing to her. Mum never tried because she was to afraid of him and if she did he 'd cut her up. The one time dad wanted to have a go at me Ann stepped in and offered herself to dad just to protect me. He pushed her on the floor did his thing and then he turned to me telling me I was lucky that I had such a strong sister. Two weeks later he came home drunk and walked in the living room with a gun. He ordered me to tie up Ann in a chair and then I had to sit on my knees next to her. Mother cried out not to hurt us but father aimed his gun at her and fired. He killed mum first and then he turned to me and said only obedient daughters were allowed to live. He ordered me to take of my clothes, put my hands under Ann's skirt and start rubbing her thighs. I did as he asked knowing that he would do something to me when I didn't do as he asked but I was wrong. As soon as I was rubbing Ann's thighs he grabbed my hips and started to push himself into me. I never felt that much pain and I never had since then but I now understood what Ann was suffering and why she wanted to protect me from him. As soon as he was finished with me he ordered me to go to bed but I knew why he wanted me gone so he could take another crack at torturing Ann again. For the first time in my life it was time to show him I was not going to let him torture her again so I refused to go out. He looked at me and said that I was to weak to do what Ann could so he took a piece of rope and strangled me. After that I woke up in a hospital remembering what he had done to me and I wondered how Ann was doing. The doctor at the hospital said that I would never have to go home again and that he knew somebody who could help me. I took the chance of getting out as Ann always told me to do when it was offered. Now I feel guilty about the fact that I have taken it without getting her out of there too." She folded her hands in her lap and started to cry again.

"If it helps a little," Heero started to comfort her "She had been brainwashed several times since then so she didn't remember how or when you were killed. She even got pregnant at the age of twelve had the baby six weeks before her thirteenth birthday. She didn't remember any of it until a few days ago. I think you had a good shrink helping you to deal with your nightmares and somehow he resurfaced memories that could have been buried inside your head for years but now you can talk about them."

"Mohamed made sure that I was given the best treatment to heal again from the traumatic experiences throughout my childhood. I am very grateful to him and I can't wait to return the favour to him. He has been like a father to me, at least he took care of me as my real father should have."

"I see he has taken good care of you but I want you to come home with me so you can meet everyone. Ann, Annie, Mariemaya, Relena and Trowa are all looking forward to see you." Heero told her looking at her reaction.

"Who are Annie, Mariemaya and Trowa?" she asked

"Annie is Ann's daughter, she named her Annie because at the time she didn't know what to call her baby. Mariemaya is the daughter of Treize Kushrenada who once tried to stage a military coup but got beaten by the gundams. Ann has adopted her six weeks after the coup. Trowa is a good friend of mine and Ann's new love in her life. They both fell in love during the war but got separated for a long time and on top of that she lost all memory about that. She found out again a few days ago."

"It seems like she has found happiness at last. I wish I could see her but I have other obligations right now."

"What obligations do you have?"

"Well in a few months from now I will be introduced to the man who I will marry in a year from now. I have been told he is a handsome man, charming and he is supposed to be a war hero. His name is Quattre Rebarbra Winner, have you met him during your time in the war?"

"He is a brother in arms, since we both were fighting for the colonies it was inevitable to run into each other. We became friends but he never mentioned that he was arranged to marry someone. He just announced to me the other day he was going to marry a friend of Relena, so if he knew about you marrying him he wouldn't have asked for her hand." Heero told her checking her reactions. She was a bit surprised but on the other hand it was possible that the young man didn't know about the arrangement between his father and Mr Ahmadi.

"When is he going to get married" she asked.

"I heard something about next month although it hasn't been confirmed yet."

"Mohamed won't be to pleased with that because he was promised that I would be the first wife in the household."

"I don't know what Mr Ahmadi and Mr Winner agreed upon but I can't just accept the fact that I find you to see you get married off to one of my best friends." Heero stated. At that point Mohamed walked in to tell her to go back to her room. He turned to Heero and started to talk.

"Mr Yuy I have done some checking up and it seems like you have ties to the Winner family."

"So what if I do"

"Well that would make things easier for me. I want you to tell him that I want a meeting with him in two days concerning his marriage with Ariana. You would do me a great favour by reminding him of the contract that was drafted between me and his father."

"I wonder if he knew that such a contract existed." Heero bluntly remarked.

"He should have known by now. His father would tell him at his eighteenth birthday."

"Quattre's father is dead for nearly five years so I doubt he was able to tell him about the contract between you and him."

This hit Mohamed in the face, he never thought about the fact that Mr Winner hadn't told anyone else. He suddenly realised that if no one ever told Quattre he was supposed to marry Ariana that he was well within his rights to marry another woman before he married Ariana. The contract was clear about details like that too. He suddenly realised that Mr Winner must have known he wouldn't live to tell Quattre about the contract so he added this clause that if Quattre would marry another woman than Ariana because he never was told to marry her first than he could marry the other woman and then he would get married with Ariana later. Mohamed underestimated the Winners and now he saw his great opportunity to become a member of the high society slip through his fingers. Heero looked at him with an expressionless face, told him he was leaving and he would bring Mr Ahmadi's message. He turned around and left the Ahmadi manor to go to the Winner mansion.

At the Winner mansion Quattre was looking through the contract his father had with Mr Ahmadi. He made sure that everything he read could help him to get out of this marriage. Dorothy was looking through another part of the contract. She looked at Quattre who looked very concerned.

"This contract is ironclad. I can't find anything that I can really use against Mohamed in order to get out of this marriage. The only thing I can use is the fact that I have never been told that this contract existed until now so you can get at least your rightful place as my first wife. Ariana then will be the second wife. I don't know if I will be able to treat her as a husband should and that would not be fair to her. She deserves better than this. I only want to marry you and no one else. What is the part of the contract revealing to you about what would be the compensation for refusing to marry her?"

"Well first of all you will loose all your rights as the head of the Winner corporation, second you will loose your fortune and there is a page missing here with other agreements followed by a fourth compensation which will take away your rights as head of the family."

"I wonder what is on the missing page. You don't have it lying around there because this set of papers is complete."

"No I don't have it here and we have to know what is on it. It may help us to take the right decision." Dorothy said.

Quattre called in Rasheed to find Irea and send her to his office if she was available. Ten minutes later Irea walked in looked at the couple in front of her who were looking at a certain part of the marriage contract.

"Irea there seems to be a page missing in this contract, do you happen to know where it is." Quattre asked her.

"I don't know what you mean Quattre. I don't know what I have to do with a missing page" Irea answered.

"Don't lie to me" Quattre reacted angrily

Irea saw that her dear little brother was getting angry and this wasn't the time to play dumb so she produced the page which she had hidden in another file. Quattre looked at it and started to realise why she had hidden this page.

"Our father really made a deal with the devil. You will have to marry his oldest son when I refuse to marry Ariana. I see that every single one of my sisters is set up to marry a relative of the Ahmadi's. You thought by hiding this page I would push forward and would only marry Dorothy and that you and all of my sisters sacrificed your freedom to choose your husbands for my happiness. If there is someone who has to right the wrongs here it is me. I can live without the riches we have, I can start a new business for myself but don't ask me to sacrifice my own family because I won't." Quattre barked at Irea. Dorothy walked over to Irea who was about to cry and put an arm around the woman's shoulder.

"We know you meant well but hiding things from us is not right, especially not to family. If that marriage is unavoidable we have to go through with it anyway. Quattre is as disappointed as I am about the fact he never was told that he was arranged to marry someone else besides me, but we can't change that now. If you thought that Quattre would let his family be torn apart to get what he wants more, you have another thing coming. He always puts family over business but this contract is a mix of business and family making it a one way deal with only one beneficial party: the Ahmadi patriarch. He knows that no matter what Quattre will marry Ariana because this contract states he will loose everything including me and the child we are expecting." Dorothy comforted Irea.

Quattre read the contract again and then looked up at his sister shaking his head. He knew that he had to marry Ariana weather he liked it or not. He hoped that she would at least be understanding about the whole situation and that she would take his offer to marry her after he married Dorothy. Hopefully Heero could be successful in dealing with Mohamed but the chance that he would get out of this marriage were low. At that time Rasheed came in his office announcing the arrival of Heero. Heero walked in greeted everyone and told everyone what he knew up to this point and had to disappoint Quattre that he couldn't get him out of this arranged marriage. Dorothy looked at Quattre who seemed to be on the brink of a breakdown. She put her arms around him and she started to caress him trying to calm him down but as soon as he felt her arms around him he started to cry. Heero told everyone he was leaving so they could take care of each other. Irea offered Heero a room where he could stay until the talks with Mohamed were over so he could at least help Quattre. Heero accepted the offer and Rasheed showed him his room. The moment Heero was alone he started to cry as well. For the first time in years he wasn't able to help someone he cared for and it made him feel angry. He would have loved to get Quattre out of this marriage with his sister Ariana. He wanted to take Ariana home and he also wanted that Relena was there with him. He picked up the phone and called her. The moment he heard her voice he started to feel a bit better and he told her everything that had happened that day and how disappointed he was about the fact that he couldn't help Quattre and Ariana out of the marriage they were forced in. Relena calmed him down and told him that maybe in some way this could end up well. He thanked her for listening to him and he told her he couldn't wait to hold her again in his arms. He hung up after that and decided to get some sleep to clear his head from all his worries.

On earth Relena was walking over to lady Une's room to tell her what Heero had told her. Once she was at the door she heard the children and lady Une laughing and Relena lost her courage to tell Ann what Heero found out. Lady Une had heard enough bad news for the past few days but she also had the right to know. While she decided what to do the door opened and Annie ran right into her.

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to..." the young girl started but Relena smiled at her telling her it was alright. Ann who was curious about what was going on at the door came out and saw Relena.

"Relena what brings you here?" the woman asked. Relena looked at her trying to hide whatever she was feeling at the time but Ann saw right through it.

"What is it Relena?"

"Ann I just had a phone call from Heero and there is good news and there is bad news." Relena started with a trembling voice. Lady Une told her to come in expecting the worst. She knew Relena was struggling about how she would bring the news so she told her not to be afraid about what she had to tell her. Relena started to tell her about the fact that Heero had found her sound and well on L4 with a family called Ahmadi. When lady Une learned about the fact that Mohamed Ahmadi was the legal guardian over Ariana and her father gave her up to him she was a bit surprised. Then Relena crushed every hopes Ann had about seeing her sister again as a free woman because she was arranged to marry Quattre.

"Are you sure about this? Has father given up his paternal rights to this man?" Ann asked

"Yes and Heero tried to find a legal way to get around the legal documents but the only way we can get Ariana out of this marriage is by making Mr Ahmadi to give up his rights as her guardian. Which he will refuse." Relena said

"At least we know that she will end up with a good husband" Ann sobbed

"Yes she will but it just isn't right" Relena replied holding back her tears but soon enough both women were crying and the children came over to sit with them and tried to comfort them. Some time later the two women were feeling better and took the girls in their arms and asked them if it would be a good idea to have a girl's night out. Mariemaya jumped off Relena's lap telling them it was a great idea while Annie looked at her mother with a puzzled look.

"Mum, going out while aunt Ariana is in trouble?" she asked

"Ariana is not in deep trouble, she can handle it up to a certain extend besides uncle Heero is there to help her." Ann replied.

"Knowing Heero he will step on a few toes to get what he wants" Relena added.

The girl still wasn't satisfied with the answers she got. Lady Une said that she shouldn't worry and there was nothing they can do about it anyway so it wouldn't hurt to let go for just a few hours. She sent the girls off to change and then she turned to Relena.

"Relena you don't have to keep on your own room, why don't you move in this room there is place enough for the four of us. It 'll save you money and you don't have to come here to see if everything is alright."

"I have the feeling that you want me around to help you with the girls. They are quite a hand full but I would love to help you but when Heero calls I 'll be outside unless he would ask for you."

"So you take me up on my offer?"

"Yes I do, besides it is quite lonely without Heero around. We can keep each other company. I 'll be getting my stuff and see you in half an hour here. You 'd better be ready for our evening out."

"I will be!"

Relena left the room to gather her own things and about twenty minutes later she was back. Mariemaya and Annie were looking at her moving into their room with a broad smile on their faces.

Ann told the girls to be good while they were out in town. After that they left the place behind and went nuts all evening. They returned late in the evening and went to bed immediately.

Mariemaya woke up as Annie was tossing and turning in her sleep crying out to someone to stop. She touched Annie's arm in order to wake her up. When the girl woke up she looked at Mariemaya with a frightened face.

"Hey you were having quite a nightmare" Mariemaya apologised for waking her up.

"It is alright, I am having these nightmares since I was ten." Annie answered.

"What are they about?"

"It is always the same, I see mum lying down under an old man who is doing god knows what to her and then he tells me that she has been a bad girl and that she deserves this punishment. Mum is always crying to let me go and that she would do everything he wants her to. After that he puts a gag in her mouth as he continues with what he was doing in the first place. I always beg him to stop and leave mum alone but he never listens. As soon as he is finished he tells me that some day she will give me a baby brother. I don't understand why he is hurting her that way."

Mariemaya understood what the girl was telling her so she took her into her arms and said that Annie shouldn't have to worry about that. Annie nodded and laid her head against Mariemaya's chest while she let her tears flow freely. Mariemaya kept her arms around her and comforted her until she fell asleep. Mariemaya looked at the girl in her arms and wondered what was going on in her mind. She held her arms around her and fell asleep herself.

Lady Une also was having a restless sleep. Relena suddenly felt Ann's elbow in her ribs waking her up. She looked at the woman next to her who was wrestling with her blankets as if someone was lying upon her. Relena decided to wake up lady Une and ask her what the dream was all about if she could remember. By the time Relena's hand was close enough to lady Une to wake her up Ann was waking up with a loud scream. She looked around with a bewildered look in her eyes. Relena, who was a bit startled, told her it was all a nightmare. Lady Une sighed and looked at her.

"I was dreaming about the times my father had abused me. I never had these dreams before because I couldn't remember it. The only time I did remember of those days was the one time that happened before I ran from home and I got over it pretty good after some time. Now I have to deal with all these horrible memories too. Being raped once was bad to get over but being abused so many times makes me feel, I don't know, filthy. I could have stopped him by kicking, beating and biting him but I never did anything. I just let it happen because he was my father and father knew what was best." at that point Ann started to cry. Relena put her arms around the woman and comforted her. Ann laid her head against Relena's chest. While both women were lying on the bed lady Une continued her story.

"He told me that I was a very good girl if I would do as he told me and he would make sure no one would hurt me. At first he only touched my vagina or licked it but with time he started to shove his fingers in me. I was eleven when this all started and by the time I turned twelve I was his sex partner for at least three days a week. I remember the first time he fucked me I was to surprised to say no to him. Later on I asked him why he did this to me he told me that everyone did it. I should have known better but I believed him. Mum didn't care any more what happened to me or Ariana since she only cared about what happened to Jonah and she did everything to find him again. When I told her what daddy was doing to me she said that I was telling lies, that he wouldn't do that to me or Ariana. She was lost inside her own search for Jonah that she didn't notice any more what was going on at home. I think that was the reason why father had killed her because she didn't care about her children any more. I remember the times he looked at Ariana in the same way he looked at me when he felt the need to fuck me. I walked up to him told him to stay away from Ariana and take me instead. He told me that at least I did care about Ariana's well being before he took me to bed with him. I think that he saw his opportunity to get rid of mum and turn me into his life partner. I think he has always been somewhat of a paedophile with incestuous tendencies and as soon mum stopped to look after us he took advantage of the situation. The first time he took me to bed with him I wondered why he wanted me instead of our mother next to him in bed. Well I found out soon enough. First the somewhat innocent games followed later by the systematic brainwashing in which he made me believe that I wasn't doing anything wrong. I really thought that what we were doing was normal. Can you imagine my surprise when I found out that it was not? It was my tutor who told me that my father was not allowed to go to bed with me. Three days later father had fired her but I believed her."

"Why did you believe her?"

"Because father had killed mum and Ariana the day before. I remember how he came home, pulled his gun, aimed at mum saying that she was a bad mother and shot her. I ran over to her but dad grabbed me and tied me to a chair while Ariana was trying to get away from us. Then he grabbed her by her neck and told her to sit on her knees in front of me. I begged my father to leave her alone and take me instead. I knew he would hurt her so I offered myself to him again and again but he told me that I was not her mother so he could do with Ariana as he pleased. He ordered her to put her hands under my dress and start to rub my thighs and vagina. He sat down behind her and pulled down her panties and started to rape her. She looked up to me while her hands were clawing into my thighs. I told her to hold on even though it hurt like hell but I knew that the pain she was feeling was worse than the pain I felt at the time. She kept looking in my eyes and cried until he had enough fun with her. After that he told her to go to her room but she wanted to stay with me so that he wouldn't hurt me again. I told her to go to her room and not to worry about me any more because it was already too late for me. She grabbed my hips and pulled herself close against me trying to protect me from what she thought to be the same fate that she went through. Father put his hands around her throat and killed her while he was fucking me. When he came in me he let go of her lifeless body. After that he picked me up kissed me and brought me to bed. The next day I told everything to my tutor who then confronted my father. That was the last time I saw her and later I found out that he had ripped her tongue out and made sure that she couldn't tell any one who she was in any way. I found her again after the war hidden in our cellar where she was abused by my father as a human toilet. As long as he lived he didn't even once use the toilets in the house to do his business, he did it always on her. When he died she thought she could finally get out but my father's staff didn't let her out because they feared that they would have to go to prison for not helping her. Well when I found her I was so angry that I fired them all and replaced them. I took her with me and brought her home again. Three days later she died leaving me a thank you note on her deathbed. I wished I had been with her when she died because there was so much she wanted to tell me but her body was failing her rapidly. At least she died in peace. I 'll never forget the look on her face when I found her in the cellar. The look of disbelief, the pain and the happiness that someone finally came to rescue her. She held on to me like a child would hold on to it's mother when I walked her out of her cell. She was weakened by the things my father had done to her and according to the doctor that examined her she had not long to live so I searched for her family and they came for her as soon as possible. Then came Sally to me with the offer to lead the Preventers and I went to Brussels to see what it was all about and when I came home again her sister came to me with her final note. It said that she hoped that I would come home to get her out and when that wish came through she could die in peace knowing that I was safe." Ann sobbed.

"I don't know what to say right now. Usually I 'm so good with words but there are no words for all the things your father did. How can I understand what you have gone through? You have been living in hell until you went to the academy." Relena tried to calm her down. Ann put her arms around Relena's chest, laid her head on Relena's shoulder and cried for a while. Relena held her in her arms while she kissed the woman's hair. Ann looked up to Relena, lifted her head and kissed Relena full on the lips. Relena was to surprised to immediately react but once the shock wore of she gently pushed lady Une back.

"Ann, why did you kiss me like that"

"I...well...oh God, mum used to kiss me like that when she comforted me"

"It sounds as if your father was not the only paedophile in the house."

"She never touched me like my father did, she only kissed me that way. She just kissed me like that, nothing else. Come to think of it I sometimes kissed Mariemaya like that and she never thought anything wrong with it."

"But I do, you French kissed me. I hope you 're not attracted to me because I don't want an affair with you."

"I am not in love with you although you really know how to kiss. I can see what Heero sees in you. You really are as passionate as he claims you to be."

"You talk about me?"

"Well Heero only talked about you with me because he wanted to keep it between me and him. Looking back on it, he only shared the general info on you with everyone but he told intimate details to me. He knew we were brother and sister during the war but he never told me because he couldn't prove it. In my heart I must have known it too because I never shared his stories with any one else."

"Well since you have been swapping stories about me maybe I can tell you this too. Did you know that Heero had this recurring nightmare about you and him fucking each other."

"He never told me"

"He told me one night some time after the war. I asked him why he called it a nightmare and he told me then that it was not right. At the time he left it with that but now it all makes sense. These nightmares became less recurrent after we spent our first night together. Every now and then he wakes up after this nightmare screaming your name."

Ann wondered why Heero had nightmares like that, she could barely remember holding him in her arms when she was four let alone remembering what happened to him. She laid her head down on Relena's chest and soon after she fell asleep. Relena held the woman in her arms wondering about what had happened between her and Ann. That kiss changed her view on lady Une a little. No mother would kiss her children in that way and that is what put Relena on her guard. Was lady Une loosing her last marbles or has she been raised in a way no child should be raised. If her definition of a comforting kiss was French kissing she must have been raised completely wrong. Relena remembered her first French kiss and at the time she was with Heero.

Quattre looked up to Heero who was reading a newspaper while they were waiting for Mohamed Ahmadi to arrive. There was a lot of tension in the air because today Quattre would see the woman he was supposed to marry. Dorothy and Irea walked into the living room where both men were sitting.

"Hey bro, everything alright?" Irea started up the conversation

"I will be as soon as this meeting is over. I just can't wait to tell Mohamed the bad news." he replied

"What bad news?"

"That Ariana isn't going to be his 'first lady'"Heero stated

"I remember something about a small compensation for that" Dorothy cut in.

"Yes I know but I will offer him something to sweeten the deal." Quattre said

"What are you up to?" Irea asked.

"Well in the past two days I have talked to Yasmina, Jason Ahmadi and a few lawyers. It seems like Jason has feelings for Yasmina and she has feelings for him so I set them up to meet. Yesterday they had their first date and it went remarkably well. I practically had to use force to get him to go home while Dorothy had to drag Yasmina in." Quattre told Irea who seemed to get his idea.

"So in order to get a little something out of it you are going to offer Yasmina as a possible wife for his youngest son. I love the way you think." she reasoned.

"In a few minutes Mohamed and his sons Yussuf and Jason will arrive so I want Dorothy to keep out of sight as well as every sister here at home. You Irea will have to be at the meeting at first since you knew about this contract and never told me. You will have to explain why you never mentioned it to me until it was too late off course. I hope you will tell the truth." Quattre continued.

"I will tell the truth but when I am done I will join Dorothy in the recreation room." Irea told him.

"That alright but one more thing, you will have to wear a veil and preferably something more ladylike since Mohamed is a bit of a traditionalist. I don't want to anger him further by not showing some respect for tradition." Quattre told Irea, who immediately took off to her room.

"Well does this mean that when we are married that I have to wear a veil too when he comes to visit us." Dorothy asked. Quattre looked at her and nodded. Dorothy shrugged, kissed Quattre and left the room.

"You do know Quattre that Dorothy will refuse to wear a veil under any circumstances. My advice is not to cross her on that." Heero said.

"I know but for now she will behave. We made a pact that when the two of us are married she will do as told when she is here at L4. When we are on Earth she is free to do whatever she wants. I am even considering moving to Earth so she can live her life as freely as she is used to. It also means that Ariana will live closer to her family." Quattre replied looking at Heero who started to smile. It seemed like Heero was expecting this to happen.

About ten minutes later Rasheed walked in to announce the arrival of the Ahmadi delegation. Quattre told him to bring them to his office while he stood up and gestured Heero to follow him.

As soon as everyone was assembled in Quattre's office Mohamed started to speak.

"May I thank you Mr Winner and your family for the hospitality you are showing us. It is a great pleasure to know that I am as welcome to this house as I was in the past when your father was still around. I hope that you don't mind me saying but today will be a glorious day for both you and me. Mr Winner as you should know by now your father and I were good friends and we both meant well for you and your future so I have made arrangements with your father to make sure you get the future you deserve."

"Will you get down to business," Heero interrupted "We all know why you are here so cut the crap will ya."

"Mr Yuy, I think you need some lessons in manners but since you insist, I am here to see if Mr Winner is going to honor the agreement his father and I had. We agreed that he would marry my adopted daughter Ariana when he would come of age. It came to my attention that you weren't going to do so but you planned on marrying another woman instead."

"You heard right Mr Ahmadi but I haven't completely discarded the agreement yet. I wasn't aware that I was arranged to marry Ariana until I announced I was going to marry Ms Catalonia. The reason why I wasn't told in time is simple: my father was supposed to tell me on my eighteenth birthday or his lawyer who drafted the contract but both of them died before that day. There was only one other person who had knowledge of this contract but told me about it when it was too late. I did something I shouldn't have and now I am paying the price. I therefore have to deny Ariana's right as my first wife but I will compensate you for the suffered loss."

"You mean you are still going to marry her I suppose but who else knew about this contract since your father and his lawyer were dead there was no one else but me who knew about it." Mohamed asked.

"I knew you 'd ask that question so I am going to let that person explain it. Rasheed would you please send in Irea." Quattre continued

Rasheed opened the door and Irea came in making everyone turn their head. She had changed into a dress that really showed her body shapes. For a moment Mohamed couldn't get his eyes of of her. He turned to Quattre and asked why she was there.

"Well she was the one who told me about the deal you and father made with each other. Now let her do all the explaining." Quattre answered as he turned to Irea who started to tremble.

"Good afternoon gentlemen, I am Irea Winner, Quattre's older sister. As you are informed I was the last one alive to know about the marriage that was arranged by Mr Ahmadi and my father. I found out about it a few months before Quattre went off to earth to fight Oz. I was in father's office looking for some articles concerning medical care when I found this file on his desk. When I looked in it I found out what it exactly was, an arrangement to marry Quattre and Ariana Une, the girl father saved from death. It was quite a surprise since I was told by our parents that we wouldn't be forced in an arranged marriage and yet there it was an arranged marriage. I confronted father with this knowledge and he told me that if Quattre knew what was good for him he would better marry her. I never disagreed with my father before then but that evening I was so angry with him that he always forced Quattre into doing things which were supposed to be good for him. Little did I know that Quattre was ready to defy him on looking for a different solution to the war that was coming our way. In the end Quattre left us to fight and I hoped for his sake he would return a hero and that father would break the agreement you had with him. Unfortunately father died in the war and Quattre started to fight even harder to create the peace he longed for. He did come home a hero but no one told him what his future held in store since I was told never to tell him about the arranged marriage and the lawyer never got the chance to tell him either. He died in the Mariemaya uprising."

Mohamed looked at her and started to wonder. Had the old Mr Winner known that these events would happen? Was it possible that he left his son a way to get out of this marriage?

"Well it seems that I had to come out here sooner so Mr Winner would have known about our arrangement." Mohamed started "I have to say your sister is a very obedient woman when it comes down to it. She would some day make a fine wife, hopefully one of my sons."

"Irea will marry who she wants, when she wants." Quattre told Mohamed. "I intend to keep our father's promise that she as well as my other sisters can marry the man of their choosing."

"Will they make the right choices in men?" Mohamed asked.

"Well, if they don't it is not my problem but theirs and that is why Irea is not married yet she hasn't found the right man yet to marry. Irea you may go join our other sisters and my fiancé in the courtyard." Quattre told her.

Irea walked out with a graceful bow, still trembling but relieved that she was allowed to go to her sisters and Dorothy. As soon as she was out of sight Mohamed turned to Quattre wondering what this young man was up to since he dropped the word fiancé on purpose and without hesitation. Maybe he was going to announce now that he would not marry Ariana and by doing so hand over the entire Winner company to him. Mohamed discarded the idea immediately because Quattre also mentioned that he would keep his father's promise that his daughters could marry the man of their own choosing and it seemed that the young man meant what he said.

"Well Quattre you still haven't told me if you are going to marry Ariana or not. I have to remind you that the price for not marrying her is quite high."

"I am aware that, you see I can't really marry Ariana before I have married Ms Catalonia." Quattre started to tell

"You will marry her first as promised in the contract" Mohamed interrupted

"Will you please listen first before you start arguing about what is in the contract and what is not in there."

"I certainly will not...The agreement was that you marry Ariana when you are of age and she would be the lady of the house. Then you can marry whoever your heart desires, is that clear?"

"You tell me to turn my firstborn into a bastard child." Quattre calmly answered looking back at Mohamed who suddenly realised what was going on. Dorothy Catalonia, the Dutches Dermail, was expecting a baby and Quattre was its father so he had to marry her before he could marry Ariana. Even if he would marry Ariana before he married Dorothy, Ariana would still loose her rank over Dorothy since she would bare their first child before Ariana would.

"This puts a different light on the situation," Mohamed began "Excuse me for loosing my temper but I thought you wanted to get out of the agreement your father and I had."

"Actually if I could get out of it I would but I doubt that you are willing to let go of the arrangement my father and you had. I have a proposition for you, I will marry Ariana as agreed but we have to discuss a few things. I will acknowledge her as my wife but not as the lady of the house. She will get her share in the family fortune as soon as she bares her first child. As compensation for her not being the first lady here you will get the money as agreed in the contract. You don't have to pay the dowry either. Last but not least, it came to my attention that your son Jason and my sister Yasmina have been meeting each other secretly in the past few months so yesterday I asked them out on a date with me and my fiancé so we could establish for ourselves what was going on between them and we were pleasantly surprised when they announced they loved each other and possibly want to marry some day. I will give them my blessing if Jason will ask for her hand and the Ahmadi family will receive an exclusive dowry."

"Jason, son, what is Mr Winner talking about?" Mohamed asked his youngest son.

"The truth father, Yasmina and I love each other since university but I never told you because I was afraid you wouldn't approve my relation with her."

"Jason, any relation with a member of the Winner family would be fine by me. You know that."

"Yeah, as long as there is coming money your way," Jason answered.

"Hey don't use that tone of voice at me" Mohamed replied

"Actually he has, in a way, a point" Heero spoke up "If the deal with Quattre's father didn't involve so much money I bet you would let Ariana and Quattre go their own way."

"If it was only money I was interested in I would not go through all this trouble of reminding Mr Winner of the agreement his father and I had. You see to society I am still considered a servant to the Winner family whereas Quattre's father called me an equal. The only way to get society to see me like that is through this marriage." Mohamed clarified the story.

"It is true Heero, he means more to the Winner family than just being a faithful servant. He will gain the respect he earned from our society but to get it Ariana and I have to marry each other. I don't like it any more than you do but that 's the way things go here on L4. Someday this society will acknowledge true friendship over servitude." Quattre replied.

"Now then Mr Winner since we can come to an agreement I would like to accept your proposition but since you are willing to decline the dowry your father and I agreed on I will have to decline the money that you were to pay if you married someone else before you would marry Ariana. It sounds to me that we are all victims of circumstances and we can now look forward to a nice future for all of us. I only have a small request, would you please marry Ariana before your first child is born." Mohamed pleaded.

"Off course I will but first I 'd like to meet her before I decide on a wedding date." Quattre said

"Quattre, I thought you would ask for her so I brought her with us and she is waiting in the car for you. I can assure you she is everything you can wish for."

"Well since I know her sister I think she will be."

"Then you also know about the hell she has fled from to end up at my place."

"I know that her innocence was violently taken from her and that she might still have nightmares about that."

"Well I have done as much as I could to take those away but it was not that easy. It took her years not to jump up and run into a corner of her bedroom whenever I entered to see how she was or to simply say goodnight. Once she was lying in bed already because she was ill and I happened to pass her room so I entered to see how ill she was and the moment I entered her room she crawled in a ball, shivering more of fear than because of her fever. I don't exactly know what happened back then but I can imagine it must have been horrible." Mohamed sighed looked at Heero who nodded.

"Well then," Heero started to lighten the mood "Why don't we call in Ariana and let her and Quattre meet each other."

"That would be a good idea," Quattre agreed

"You youngsters are as impatient as I was when I met my first wife." Mohamed laughed while he gestured Yussuf to get Ariana. A few moments later he returned with her and Quattre smiled when he saw her enter his office. Heero looked at him and excused himself so Quattre could be able to talk with her in private. Mohamed called his sons and followed Heero. As soon as Ariana and Quattre were alone she took of her veil and looked down to the floor. Quattre walked over to her, cupped her chin and lifted her face until he could see her eyes. He looked into them and then he spoke.

"Ariana, I think you know by now that I already am marrying someone else before I will marry you but that doesn't mean that I won't marry you. My fiancé and I have already agreed that you will be part of our family. I will treat you the same way I will treat Dorothy and try to show you as much love as I possibly can. I can't honestly say that I love you right now but given time I will learn to love you."

"I know that I will never be the love of your life but I will be a good wife to you as I possibly can. You may learn to love me over time and I will love you. Over time we may have the happy family we both have dreamed of even though it turned out a little differently then we both expected."

Quattre nodded as he closely watched her and started to wonder how much she resembled her older sister. For a moment he thought they could be twins but Ariana was a bit smaller than Lady Une. Her face was softer and she had these sparkling grey eyes. She blushed during the entire time that he was looking at her. Then he noticed that she was frailer compared to Ann who was a bit muscled. She was more beautiful than Quattre expected . He walked over to his desk to call Rasheed to bring a cup of tea when he suddenly heard a knock on his door.

"I am sorry to interrupt" Rasheed walked in "but somehow Yussuf managed to insult Heero in such a way that he challenged him to a duel. I believe the exact phrase Yussuf used to provoke him was that Heero should have taken care of his sisters instead of running away from his responsibilities. Heero replied by telling him that he hadn't run away but that he was removed by his stepfather from the family. Yussuf said that if he was a man he should have made his way back to his family instead of staying away and return home as soon as everything is over. Heero admitted he should have returned sooner but then again how could an eight year old boy help his sisters if he wasn't even able to help himself. Yussuf insulted him by saying that maybe he wanted to sleep with his sisters too just like his stepfather. Heero told him to take back that remark but Yussuf refused, even Mohamed told Yussuf to take back his words or Mr Winner might reconsider his deal but still the man refused to apologise so Heero challenged him to a sword fight. Yussuf already pulled out his scimitar whereas Heero has no sword yet."

Quattre walked over to a painting which he took down and behind it were lying all kinds of swords on a display. He took a katana from it and walked out of the office telling Ariana to follow him. As soon as he came out into the garden he saw Heero diving away from another swing from Yussuf. Quattre threw Heero the katana who grabbed it while jumping in the air,unsheathed it and landed on his feet to parry Yussuf's next attack. Ariana walked out after putting her veil back on and looked at the whole scene as if she was in a movie. Mohamed walked over to her and told her not to fear for anyone's life. He looked up to the balcony overlooking the garden where several of Quattre's sisters and a blond young woman had gathered. Even though he couldn't see her face he knew that the blond woman in front of all the other women was Dorothy Catalonia, Duchess Dermail. Then he looked back at the fight seeing how well his son fought but was no match for the faster and more agile Heero. After a while Heero was able to disarm the man and put his blade to his throat.

"I won" Heero said then turned away from him and apologised to Mohamed and Quattre and walked in the house. Mohamed walked over to Yussuf and hit him over the head telling him to shut his mouth every now and then. Jason was looking at Quattre who didn't seem to be surprised about the outcome of the fight.

"Quattre let me apologise for my brother's behaviour..." he began but Quattre interrupted him.

"There is nothing to apologise for. I know what kind of person your brother is but I also know Heero too well to know that when challenged he doesn't back away from a fight. As long as he doesn't need to kill someone he will be alright but don't push him to far. He can turn into a ruthless killer in just seconds. His training has transformed him into a perfect soldier and when he is forced to be that person again I can only say God help us."

"Is he that dangerous?"

"Even more than that but lets talk about something else while Heero cools his temper and Yussuf is being led off the premises." Quattre changed the subject while he walked over to Mohamed who saw Rasheed escort Yussuf back to his car. Quattre asked Mohamed to follow him back to his office for a cup of tea and the old man accepted his offer but asked if Ariana could spend some time with the women present in Quattre's house. Quattre brought Ariana to the courtyard where the women had reassembled after the fight between Heero and Yussuf. Irea welcomed the young woman in their midst and introduced her to everyone present while Quattre left them to finish his talk with Mohamed. When he entered his office Jason and Mohamed were discussing the possible marriage between Yasmina and himself. It seemed that the Ahmadi patriarch was pleased his son was in love with her and that the feelings were mutual. Quattre interrupted their discussion and offered them a cup of tea.

"Well Quattre now that you have met Ariana what are your thoughts about her?"

"She is as beautiful as her sister, I think that over time we will come to a good understanding. I feel that I will learn to love her and someday, hopefully soon, she will give birth to a child. I hope that you would accept the honor to be the child's godfather if it is a son."

"I will but first things first. We should discuss a wedding date first and then we talk about children. Do you have a date in mind?"

"Actually I was discussed this with my fiancé and we agreed that Ariana and I should get married the same day the two of us would get married. You see she is afraid that if we wait too long that she can't be present at the wedding. She thinks that she might be confined to her bed by then just like her mother was when she was pregnant of Dorothy. This way we can also save some money as well because we will have everyone present at one party."

"You think that I want to sit with the Catalonia family at one table?"

"Actually the only family member Dorothy has left is Mariemaya Kushrenada so I highly doubt it you have to sit down at the same table with a member of the Catalonia family. General Catalonia died during the war and his wife died when Dorothy was young. The only kind of family she has left is a few good friends who also happen to be friends of mine."

"It pleases me to hear that the man who was responsible for the death of my second wife died in the war he started. Actually it was Duke Dermail who started this war to gain power so he could rule earth as well as the colonies. He never had peace on his mind and his son in law did just what he wanted to achieve his goals. Maybe it was a good thing you decided to fight Oz and Romefeller. Nevertheless I still feel like this war hasn't ended yet."

"The war is over now so enjoy the peace while it lasts, hopefully our entire life, and try to forgive those who wronged you. I lost my father because he didn't want Oz to take over L4 and the mining colonies. Oz killed him for his actions but with the help of the people of L4. I forgave them after the war although it still hurts. In my rage I destroyed several colonies and that is something no one can forgive."

"You were forgiven by the people who lost their homes back then because they saw how they had wronged you. I was one of the people who spoke up after your father was killed and showed them how wrong they were. Oz was everyone's enemy, not to the Alliance only but to everyone who longed for peace."

"Now to get back to real issue, do you agree to the proposition that I will marry Ariana the same day I marry Dorothy?"

"I don't see a problem with that now. Who will be your best man for the wedding?"

"Which wedding?...Just kidding, I was thinking about asking Jason as my best man since he has the intension to become my brother in law, what do you say Jason" Quattre asked turning to Jason.

"I will accept your offer Quattre but why don't you ask a friend or a relative."

"I thought I just did" Quattre answered.

"Son, it seems like you just been declared a member of the Winner family."Mohamed laughed "but now something else do you think that I can ask Lady Une to be Ariana's maid of honor."

"I think that Ariana should ask that herself."

"I don't know where to reach her that 's why I am asking"

"Neither do I but maybe Heero knows, just a second."

Quattre walked out of his office to see if Heero happened to be around. He found him in the garden reading a book on the theory of total pacifism.

"Heero, I need to ask you something."

"Let me guess, you want an explanation for the fight here in the garden"

"No I already know what happened and Mohamed apologises for Yussuf's behaviour. What I wanted to ask you is Lady Une's private phone number."

"Oh, Why..."

"Well Ariana wants to talk to her and she wants to ask her something."

"I see, well then lets see what I can do" Heero said as he pulled out his cellphone and looked up the Ann's phone numbers. He wrote them down so Quattre would hand them over to Ariana. He even made Quattre swear that only Ariana was given these numbers. Quattre went back inside to his office.

"Heero gave me the numbers you need but he made me promise to give them to only Ariana."

"I don't see a problem with that and what 's more I would like to go home now but I am leaving Jason and Ariana behind so you get to know her better and Jason will chaperone you. I expect you will be doing the same for him so he won't do something stupid with Yasmina."

"Don't worry about that besides there are eleven sisters here to chaperone me too not to mention Ariana's half brother who might knock me out when I do something inappropriate."

"Then I think I can leave you all in good hands."

"Yes you can."

"Well then Mr Winner it was a pleasure to be here and hope to see you soon to ask me for her hand" the old man said then bowed and left. Jason and Quattre looked at each other then walked out of the office to the courtyard where all the ladies were swapping stories with each other. While Jason was stopped by Yasmina Quattre went on to find Ariana. He found her talking with Dorothy.

"Good afternoon ladies," he started "How are my lovely to be wives doing"

"We are getting along just fine" Dorothy answered with a big smile.

"We got to know each other and I have to say we were making up a few dirty fantasies about you." Ariana teased.

"What kind...never mind, actually I came over to make it official," Quattre told them while he pulled out a small box in which were two rings. "Dorothy Catalonia and Ariana Une would you love to marry me?"

Both women looked at each other surprised he asked both of them in the same time, then looked back at him and answered simultaneously "Yes we will marry you.". Quattre put each of them their engagement ring around their fingers after which they both jumped up and kissed him on each cheek.

"Look Ariana, I never thought it was possible to make him blush like that." Dorothy squealed when she noticed Quattre's red face "Now I now it can be done"

"Ok ladies, I never expected the two of you to jump me like that either. Ariana I have here something for you." he told Ariana as he pulled out the note that Heero gave him as well as his cellphone. He handed her the note and the cellphone while she looked at him wondering what this meant.

"Why are you giving me this" she asked.

"Well I heard you wanted to ask someone close to you to be your maid of honor. The note holds her phone numbers and you will need the cellphone to call her."

Ariana realised what Quattre just offered her and tears came to her eyes as she thanked Quattre and Dorothy. She tried hard not to cry but the tears just kept rolling over her cheeks as she dialed a number. When the call connected and she heard her sister's voice at the other end she couldn't say a word so Dorothy tried to calm her down while Quattre took the phone and told Lady Une what was happening. When he stopped talking he heard that Ann also started to cry and Relena had to calm her down while Mariemaya kept the conversation going for the time being. As soon as both women had calmed down they took another turn at trying to talk to each other.

"Ann is it really you?" Ariana asked

"Yes it is me Ariana, I am surprised you are still alive. I thought you were dead." Ann sobbed.

"So did I until I woke up in a hospital alive and well. It is so good to hear from you again. If I could I would like to come over to see you again but I can't. I have a wedding to prepare." Ariana told her

"So I heard but you don't have to wait to see me for long because I will come over once all the paperwork for taking Annie home is finished. I expect that to happen in two days so if God is willing we see each other in three days."

"I called because I have something to ask you, would you like to be my maid of honor?"

"I would love to but you called at a very bad time because I have to go now to talk to a few people who will decide whether I will be allowed to take Annie home or not."

"Well then I will see you in three days, Goodbye."

Ariana hung up, turned to Quattre handed him his phone, put her arms around his neck and kissed him. Dorothy watched the entire scene unfold and her heart filled with happiness as she saw how Quattre looked at her while he held Ariana in his arms. She knew that he loved her more than he would love Ariana but she had to make sure that he wouldn't make Ariana feel that she is just the woman he had to marry to keep everyone happy. He seemed to have the same idea as he kissed her back making Dorothy smile. A few moments later Heero joined them.

"Hey lover boy go easy on my sister will ya. I want you to hold your horses until the wedding night or else you will personally get acquainted with my fists." He threatened Quattre.

"Heero where have you left your manners" Ariana yelled at him

"If he didn't use this kind of language I would be concerned" Dorothy interrupted her before she went on.

"He happens to be the designated chaperone." Quattre added with a smile on his face as Heero started to laugh. They all talked for a while until Jason came over to tell them Ariana and him were leaving to go home. They all said their goodbyes and left.

Three days later Lady Une, Relena and the children arrived at L4. Quattre, Heero, Jason end Ariana were waiting for their arrival at spaceport. When Ariana saw her older sister she immediately ran over to her and put her arms around Ann who was too surprised to react at first. When she realised it was her younger sister who held her in her arms she put down her suit case and embraced her sister as well. Tears were rolling over their cheeks while they held each other tightly. When they kissed everyone looked surprised at them except for Heero and Relena who knew a little more about their background.

"They must have been more than sisters" Jason wondered

"I think so too." Quattre joined him.

"No, it 's just that both of them have been brought up not knowing any better than kissing each other like that." Relena clarified the situation.

"Aha, so Quattre are you going to let Ariana to bring up her children like she was." Jason asked.

"I don't think so" he replied.

After that Quattre told them to follow him outside where a limo was waiting for them. When they got in Ariana took the seat next to Quattre who put one arm around her waist and asked Lady Une to sit next to him too. When everyone had taken their seat Ann asked why Quattre insisted that she would sit next to him.

"Well I would like to have a little chat with you about your sister and what perks she has." Quattre started the conversation.

"Ah, well as long as I can remember she used to love to tickle me whenever she felt like it." Ann began "She also has this typical Une temper and she is even more impatient than I am."

"Sounds like fun,"

"You 'll change your mind after your first argument you 've had with her. I also remember she liked to throw around dirty diapers in the nursery, especially the one she ..." Then Ann's expression on her face made everybody laugh while Ariana's face turned red in shame.

"Ok. I 'll keep her out off the nursery as soon as our first child is born"

"Hey, I was one year old when I did it and it only happened once." Ariana defended herself

"Actually it was twice." Ann reminded her. "Remember your second birthday"

"You may remember but I don't"

"It is one of the perks of being an older sister." Ann teased her.

"While we 're on the subject, I remember you loved to throw marbles at people's heads."

"Guilty, but you have to admit it was fun throwing them at dad who never knew who or what hit him."

"Ok I have to admit it was fun."

Everybody listened to the Une sisters bringing up stories about their childhood years and about the years they spent apart from each other. When they arrived at the Winner mansion everyone had the feeling that this family reunion was the best thing that had happened in years for all involved. Annie was quite excited when she saw where her aunt was going to live soon. She looked at Mariemaya who looked at everything as if it were a dream. A tear escaped the girl's eyes making Annie ask her why she was crying.

"The roses in the garden remind me of the rose garden at my father's estate."

"You miss him do you?"

"Yes I do but at least I know that I will get a great stepfather in return."

"You make it sound as if mum is your biological mother too."

"I feel more related to her than I ever did with my mother." the redheaded girl answered.

"Girls why don't you get in and unpack. After that you can wonder about in this garden as much as you like." Ann told her daughters as she followed the servants who were carrying their suit cases. Heero and Relena looked at her and Ariana going in together with the children. Relena then turned her head to Heero and kissed him while Dorothy and Quattre were kissing each other.

Six weeks later at the Ahmadi home.

"Ann this is already the third day in a row we have to look for you in the powder room. Are you sure you 're going to be fine for the wedding." Ariana asked her sister.

"Yes I will be fine, I have been to the doctor yesterday and he doesn't think it is something really bad. Besides I was fine all afternoon yesterday so no worries about me going to spill my guts during the wedding." Lady Une answered.

"And you are sure you 're not pregnant?" Ariana teased Ann.

"Yes I am sure" she barked

"I think she is," Dorothy said "She has that glow about her that most pregnant women have."

"It takes one to know one" Relena added to the conversation.

"ok, it is the old lets conspire against Ann thing again. I assure you that I 'm not pregnant because I never have unprotected sex."

"Are you sure about that?" Mariemaya asked

"Off course I am."

"Really mum?" Annie pushed

"Suddenly I 'm not that sure anymore" Ann started to think back to the days after she got together again with Trowa.

"Hmm, I think that we have a winner here at the baby jack pot" Ariana stated.

"And first prize is a wedding for the happy couple expecting the baby" Relena laughed while Ann started to feel small. Her cellphone started to ring so she could get out of the room while everyone else was laughing at her.

"This is Lady Une speaking."

"Good morning Ms Une this is Doctor Jameson, I have your test results back and let me be the first to congratulate you on your pregnancy."

"I 'm pregnant? Waw, how far am I along"

"Roughly six weeks I think."

"Thank you"

After the doctor had hung up she immediately dialed Trowa's number. When he picked up she asked him where he was and if he was sitting down. After he assured her that whatever she had to tell would not knock him off his feet she told him she was pregnant. Trowa suddenly sounded very excited and told everyone who was there with him the news that he was going to be a father. Lady Une felt like this confirmed how much he loved her. Once she told him that they would talk about it a little more after the wedding ceremonies she hung up and went back to the other women.

"Girls I have to tell you something," she started once she came in "You were all right, I am pregnant. It seems that the one time I had unprotected sex I got myself pregnant."

"One time?" Mariemaya wanted to make her confess

"Alright, it was more than once but let that be a warning for you young lady."

"Hey I 'm not the one having sex without any kind of protection." Mariemaya laughed.

"And I will make sure you won't have sex until you are eighteen."

"What about me?" Annie asked

"The same goes for you." Ann told her daughter.

They all went on with the preparations for the wedding talking about babies, husbands and marriages.


End file.
